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CHRISTIANITY, 



ITS ESSENCE AND EVIDENCE 



OR, 



AN ANALYSIS. 



THE NEW TESTAMENT 



HISTORICAL FACTS, DOCTRINES, OPINIONS, AND 
PHRASEOLOGY. 



BY 



GEORGE W. BURNAP, D. D. 




BOSTON: 

CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, 

111 'Washington Steeet. 

1855. 



*$S 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by 

Crosby, Nichols, and Company. 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



The Library 
of Congress 




CAMBRIDGE: 
METCALP AND COMPANY. PRINTERS 10 THE UNIVERSITY 



PREFACE 



The following work was projected and com- 
menced more than twenty years ago. At that 
time, German Rationalism had just begun to 
agitate the minds of American theologians, 
and disturb the peace of our churches. The 
author was led to investigate the grounds of be- 
lief in the supernatural origin and superhuman 
authority of the Christian religion anew. 

About that time, he fell in with a book of 
a very interesting and extraordinary character, 
written by the famous Jeremy Bentham, and 
entitled, " Not Paul, but Jesus." In this work 
that distinguished man attempted to show that 
Paul had corrupted Christianity, and that the 
Christianity of the Church had been anything 
but Christian since his time. The works of 
Jefferson were published almost contemporane- 
ously, and they were found to contain nearly 
the same sentiments. 



IV PREFACE. 

It began to be admitted, too, by Christian 
theologians, snch as Stewart of Andover and 
Neander of Germany, that there was such 
an element in the New Testament as the 
opinions of the Apostles, for which Chris- 
tianity ought not to be made responsible. 
Since that period, various hypotheses have 
been started, varying from the concessions 
made by Stewart and Neander, to the total 
denial and unbelief of Strauss and the Tubingen 
critics. 

No theological scholar, if he is candid, the 
author believes, will hesitate to admit that the 
last twenty years have been a period of anx- 
ious inquiry. He cannot have failed to per- 
ceive, that most of the issues which have been 
raised in the Christian Church have been false 
and irrelevant. The controversies between Or- 
thodoxy and Liberal Christianity have cleared 
these false issues away, and, freeing the question 
between belief and unbelief from the mists 
which hung over it, have brought it to be dis- 
cussed on its true merits. 

Increasing difficulties arose in the way of 
the defender of the authority of the New Tes- 
tament, from the doctrines it was supposed to 
teach. Many of them, as maintained by most 
churches, came in direct conflict with that 



PREFACE. 



sense of justice which makes an indestructible 
part of our nature, and those moral feelings 
which are the glory and crown of humanity. 
Advancing Science, too, began to enter her pro- 
test against certain opinions embodied in the 
New Testament, which the Church had re- 
ceived as of divine authority, and incorporated 
with Christian dogmas. 

In this state of things, it occurred to the 
author that the time had come for a new anal- 
ysis of the contents of the New Testament. 
On the old hypothesis of making it a homo- 
geneous book, all doctrine, all equally essential, 
it must encounter such serious objections as 
to overtask the faith of an enlightened age. 
On this hypothesis the main objection of Gib- 
bon never has been, and never can be, an- 
swered. 

After years of study and examination, the 
following analysis suggested itself as satisfac- 
tory. It seemed to the author to meet and 
reconcile all the difficulties of the case. 

Having thoroughly digested his plan, the 
author began to carry it out in a course of Lec- 
tures delivered in the winter of 1841-42, which 
were afterwards published under the title of 
" Lectures on the History of Christianity," and 
which have been before the public for thirteen 



VI PREFACE. - 

years. Those Lectures were intended merely as 
an introduction to the present volume ; but be- 
fore the author was aware, they had become a 
volume themselves. It was only in the last 
lecture that the present analysis was proposed. 

Incessant professional occupation, and vari- 
ous other literary enterprises, have suspended 
the completion of the plan to the present time. 
It is now offered to the Christian public as 
the fruit of the toil and thought of thirty years. 

The writer does not expect that his analysis 
will be satisfactory to all, and perhaps it may 
not commend itself fully to any mind ; but he 
trusts that the necessity of some such classifi- 
cation of the contents of the New Testament 
will be seen and acknowledged, and that many 
who are embarrassed by the commonly received 
hypotheses may see their way clear to retain a 
firm faith in Christianity as a religion of super- 
natural origin and superhuman authority. 

Baltimore, May, 1855. 



CONTENTS. 



DISCOURSE I. 

PAGE 
INTRODUCTORY .1 

DISCOURSE II. 

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST . . . . . .23 

DISCOURSE III. 

REALITT OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES .... 38 

DISCOURSE IV. 

THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST 53 

DISCOURSE V. 

THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST 68 

DISCOURSE VI. 

CHRIST WITHOUT SIN 85 

DISCOURSE VII. 

FAITH OF THE APOSTLES . . 96 

DISCOURSE VIII. 

PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL 113 

DISCOURSE IX. 

PERSONALITY OF GOD 128 

DISCOURSE X. 

PATERNITY OF GOD 146 

DISCOURSE XI. 

THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER 165 j 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

DISCOURSE XII. 

FORGIVENESS OF SINS 179 

DISCOURSE XIII. 

IMMORTALITY 196 

DISCOURSE XIV. 

RETRIBUTION .211 

DISCOURSE XV. 

INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT .... 227 

DISCOURSE XVI. 

DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 248 

DISCOURSE XVII. 

A PERSONAL DEVIL 264 

DISCOURSE XVIII. 

THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH .... 281 

DISCOURSE XIX. 

THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH . . . 293 

DISCOURSE XX. 

THE KINGDOM OF GOD ..... . 311 

DISCOURSE XXI. 

CHRIST A KING 330 

DISCOURSE XXII. 

JESUS THE SON OF GOD 344 

DISCOURSE XXIII. 

PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST 361 

DISCOURSE XXIV. 

SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE 377 

DISCOURSE XXV. 

REGENERATION 398 



DISCOURSE I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

BE IT KNOWN UNTO YOU ALL, AND TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF 
ISRAEL, THAT BY THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OF NAZA- 
RETH, WHOM YE CRUCIFIED, WHOM GOD HATH RAISED 
FROM THE DEAD, EVEN BY HIM DOTH THIS MAN STAND 
HERE BEFORE YOU ALL. THIS IS THE STONE WHICH WAS 
SET AT NAUGHT OF YOU BUILDERS, WHICH IS BECOME 
THE HEAD OF THE CORNER. NEITHER IS THERE SALVA- 
TION IN ANY OTHER, FOR THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME 
UNDER HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN WHEREBY WE MUST 
BE SAVED. — Acts iv. 10, 11, 12. 

Nothing can be more certain, as an historical fact, 
than that Christianity has been of vast advantage to 
the world. It has become the basis of modern civili- 
zation ; its spirit, diffused in society, has mitigated 
the barbarism of ancient manners, its precepts have 
entered into modern legislation, and rendered laws 
more mild, equitable, and just/ It has freed the 
human mind from a load of debasing superstitions. 
It has purified religious rites from sanguinary usages 
and shocking immoralities. 

Jesus of Nazareth was the corner-stone of Chris- 
tianity. The world received its new impulse from 
1 



INTRODUCTORY. 



his personality, his history, his life, his precepts; 
from all, in short, which is related of him in the 
New Testament. It is certain, if anything can be 
relied on as historical fact, that he extracted all that 
was spiritual and universal in the religion of Moses, 
and separated it from the ritual of that ancient insti- 
tution, connected it with a new ritual, and made it 
accessible to all mankind. He instituted an outward 
organization, which he denominated his Church, 
which had for its object the dissemination of his 
religion and its transmission to the remotest ages. 
The Church, which he instituted, has subsisted to 
the present time. It has been continually spread- 
ing wider and wider over the earth, and it has sur- 
vived everything but Judaism which then existed 
upon the earth. 

The vital principle which brought the Church into 
existence was faith in Christ, as an authorized and 
authenticated Teacher sent by God. It was early 
believed, that no one could speak as he spoke, and 
teach as he taught, without supernatural aid. The 
wisdom which he displayed in the enunciation and 
combination of the truths of religion, and in con- 
structing his Church, so far transcending the wis- 
dom of any one man, and indeed of all the sages and 
philosophers who have ever appeared upon the earth, 
has driven men to suppose that it had a divine, and 
not a merely human origin. 

It has seemed, moreover, to thoughtful men, that 
there are strong indications, not only of supernatural 
interference, but of providential arrangement, in the 
appearance of Christianity in the world; in the 
succession of the religions preceding it, the Patri- 



INTRODUCTORY. 



archal and Mosaic, by which a portion of the hu- 
man race had become prepared to receive a spiritual 
and universal religion ; in the contemporaneous prep- 
aration of the world to be approached by the propa- 
gators of the new faith ; and in the diffusion of that 
culture which rendered the reception of the doctrines 
and institutions of Christianity a possibility. 

The very structure of the Christian Church implies 
and supposes a supernatural origin. Its two only 
ordinances appeal to a superhuman authority. Bap- 
tism, which we have every reason to believe prevailed 
from the first, is a formal recognition of a supernat- 
ural mission and authority in the person of Jesus of 
Nazareth, the founder of the Church. The Supper 
was a commemoration of the inauguration of Chris- 
tianity as a religion specially given by God to man, 
through the mediation of Jesus Christ. " This is the 
new covenant in my blood." It derived its main 
significance and moral power from the fact, that it 
supposed the subsequent resurrection of Jesus, and 
its celebration afterwards expressed the belief that 
he had gone to heaven and to God, and still watched 
over his Church, and was spiritually present with it. 

The Church was founded on the belief in the 
supernatural origin of the teaching of Christ, and the 
miraculous attestations of it, which were supposed to 
seal it as coming from God. If the Gospels are to 
be trusted as history, the impression was deep and 
extensive. Notwithstanding the humility of his ex- 
terior, he was followed by multitudes. To them his 
word was with power. They were astonished at his 
doctrine. They bore testimony, that never man spake 
like this man. Peter is related to have said, after 



4 INTRODUCTORY. 

having been long his disciple, Lord, to whom shall 
we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life. Those 
teachings were committed by the disciples, his com- 
panions, to writing, and although in their reports 
they may have lost something of their original force, 
they have made the same impression on all succeed- 
ing ages. One of the greatest minds of modern 
times, and indeed of all times, who has lately passed 
away from this earth, has left his testimony to the 
world on his tombstone, that the Sermon on the 
Mount was to him the strongest evidence, not only 
of the divine mission of Christ, but of the reality of 
religion and the immortality of the soul. 

It is easy for any person to compare the words of 
Jesus with all other writings, and to judge by their 
character whether it is most reasonable to attribute 
them to unaided human reason, or divine inspira- 
tion. The Church, I have said, was founded on a 
belief in divine and miraculous interposition, au- 
thenticating Christ as a divine teacher, and Chris- 
tianity as a divine institution. The book of Acts, 
which has every feature of an earnest and truthful 
account of the very commencement of the Christian 
Church, shows conclusively, that its foundation ivas 
laid in the belief in the resurrection of Jesus, and its 
growth was aided by the persuasion, that miraculous 
powers were still continued to the Apostles during 
their ministry. 

The persuasion of the superhuman origin of the 
doctrines of Christ, and their supernatural attestation 
by his resurrection, was not only the foundation of 
the Church, but was the source of its moral poiver,by 
which its members were elevated so far above the level 



INTRODUCTORY. 



of the world at large, both of contemporary Judaism 
and surrounding idolatry. The Gospel, as far as we 
can judge, came home to the consciences of men 
with irresistible power, because it was a more perfect 
embodiment and expression of moral truth than had 
ever been presented to them before. The essential 
truths of universal religion were exhibited in such a 
form of beauty and power, as no human wisdom or 
ingenuity had ever reached, and all the teachings of 
the wisest philosophers sink into insignificance in 
comparison with the teachings of Jesus, and seem 
like the merest babblings of childhood. 

The sanction and bond of all moral and religious 
obligation is the doctrine of immortality, and its nat- 
ural consequence, that there will be a future and 
complete retribution. Without this, religion has no 
vitality, and morality sinks to a mere worldly expe- 
diency, and the noblest virtues subside into a fan- 
tastic enthusiasm or a selfish caution. Human life, 
confined within the narrow horizon of the present 
world, is shorn of its glory, and becomes compara- 
tively dishonored, mean, and valueless. Human 
nature loses its sacredness, and human rights are 
trodden under foot without scruple, without sympa* 
thy, and without remorse. 

The difference is almost infinite in the self-respect 
that is begotten by the expectation of immortality, 
and the persuasion that death puts a period to both 
soul and body. He who expects to die the death of 
a brute will feel little degradation in living the life 
of a mere animal. The moral and religious nature of 
man becomes an absurd superfluity. The natural hope 
inspired by a life of integrity, of self-denial, of justice 
1* 



6 INTRODUCTORY. 

and benevolence, becomes a mere phantom of delu- 
sion, and the fear, which oppresses a guilty con- 
science, of what shall be after death, becomes the 
weakest of superstitions. The solemnity of an oath, 
which is at present the safeguard of life, liberty, and 
property, is the idlest of mockeries. And were such 
to be the universal conviction, the main-spring of the 
order and progress of society would be broken, and 
society itself would collapse into a state of complete 
demoralization. 

In the resurrection of Christ, those who believed 
in it as an historical fact conceived themselves to 
have received strong confirmation of the natural hope 
of immortality. Through the risen Saviour, they had 
received certain intelligence from the spiritual world, 
which is veiled from the eye of sense, and the mem- 
bers of the Christian Church which was first organ- 
ized by a belief in the fact, were immediately ele- 
vated by that belief to a level of moral purity, of 
religious fervor, of mutual esteem and affection, of 
spirituality and devotedness, that the world had 
never seen before. 

Faith in Christ, then, as an authenticated messenger 
from God, as the founder of a religious society ',- and 
as a risen, ever-living Saviour, ivas the foundation of 
the Christian Church. Upon the strength of this 
faith, his-fcreligion has spread over a large part of the 
globe. Thus was Christ the corner-stone, and in 
Divine Providence he has been the instrument, in 
the hands of God, of effecting the moral regenera- 
tion of the world. 

But the reception of Jesus of Nazareth as the 
corner-stone, as the moral power by which the world 



INTRODUCTORY. 7 

was to be regenerated, was not unanimous. ' Accord- 
ing to the history, at the age of about thirty, he 
came forth into the world and assumed the position 
of a supernatural mission from God; and of super- 
human authority over men, as naturally flowing from 
it. To that position his whole bearing and conduct 
were adjusted. He demanded it as a right, he re- 
quired submission to it as a duty. ' He bore witness 
to it from his own consciousness. He appealed to 
the spotless integrity of his whole character, and 
defied his enemies to convict him of the slightest 
moral obliquity. He appealed to the testimony of 
John the Baptist, he appealed to his own miracles, 
he alleged the transcendent wisdom of his doctrine, 
as the accumulated proofs that he was what he 
claimed to be, and finally staked his claim upon the 
fulfilment of his prophecy of rising from the dead. 
By the rulers of his nation he was rejected and put 
to death. . By those whom he called about him, and 
who were witnesses of his daily life, he was viewed 
as a teacher sent from God, and as bearing the 
words of eternal life. He was rejected by the rulers, 
as an impostor, and put to death as a seditious per- 
son and a disturber of the peace. 

His disciples testified to the world that God raised 
him from the dead, according to his own prediction, 
and sent them abroad to propagate his religion over 
the world. They recorded his history and teaching; 
they left an account of their own doings as his 
Apostles; and their correspondence is still extant, 
while they were engaged in the establishment of the 
Christian Church. And so both the Church and their 
writings have come down to our day. 



8 INTRODUCTORY. 

But there are some, as at first, who now reject 
Christ as the corner-stone, and deny his claims to 
all supernatural authority. They give a different 
version to the whole account of the origin of Chris- 
tianity. They repudiate the supernatural element 
altogether. They allege that there has been some- 
where a grand mistake. The rejection of the mi- 
raculous has been the sum and substance of modern 
unbelief. But all confess that it is in the New Tes- 
tament. If it is an interpolation, some account must 
be given of the way by which it got there. And 
on this point there is the greatest possible variety of 
opinion. Time would fail us to consider the various 
hypotheses which have been started, all different, and 
most of them contradictory to each other. 

By some, miracles are set aside, as so improbable 
in themselves as to be incapable of proof. They are 
improbable, because it is not to be supposed that a 
Being infinitely wise and powerful would, construct 
the world, either of mind or matter, in such a way as 
to need alteration or amendment. They are inca- 
pable of proof, because they must rest on human 
testimony, and human testimony is more likely to 
be false than the laws of nature to be changed. 

The miraculous, therefore, in Christianity, so far 
from lending additional support to the doctrine of 
immortality, is unable to bear its own weight. 
Those, therefore, who hold the doctrine of immor- 
tality to be naturally improbable, consider the at- 
tempt to substantiate that doctrine by miraculous 
evidence as an endeavor to corroborate one improb- 
ability by another. They consider the doctrines of 
the New Testament to be less likely to be true from 



INTRODUCTORY. V 

the miraculous element there is in it, instead of more 
so. All writings are rendered suspicious and unrelia- 
ble by containing any recognition of the miraculous. 

This objection, however confidently made, has 
hitherto had but little weight with thinking men. It 
seems idle to affirm what that omnipotent Power, 
who made and sustains the world, can, or cannot, 
do. These very unbelievers in revelation, because it 
contains records of the miraculous, believe the geolo- 
gist when he tells them that there was a time when 
the race of man did not exist upon our earth. It is 
undeniably certain, that the first pair were created 
by miracle, and not according to any known law. 
If miracles are impossible, then we must deny that 
there is any such thing as the human race upon the 
face of the earth. 

Another undertakes to tell us how and when the 
mistake of incorporating the miraculous with Chris- 
tianity was committed. The New Testament was 
not written by the Apostles, or their companions, or 
by any original witnesses of the ministry of Jesus. 
The life and history of Jesus subsisted in the form 
of oral traditions. Jesus had been a remarkable 
man, and a remarkable teacher. A religious sect 
sprung up under his name, and was held together 
by his doctrines. Veneration for his character, and 
a love of the marvellous, interspersed the narrative 
of his birth, his life, his death and burial, with va- 
rious miracles and prodigies, which were thought to 
correspond with his real greatness and his historical 
importance. 

Another admits that the documents which com- 
pose the New Testament bear indisputable internal 



10 INTRODUCTORY. 

evidence of being the production of the Apostolic 
age. Some of them were written by the Apostles 
themselves, the companions and contemporaries of 
Jesus. Yet, connected with the reports of the sub- 
lime discourses of Jesus, there are exhibitions of so 
much ignorance, credulity, and superstition, that it is 
rendered more probable that they were mistaken or 
carried away by their enthusiasm, than that the 
miracles they reported should have really taken 
place. Miracles have been attested by eyewitnesses 
in all ages of the world, and still wise and conscien- 
tious men do not hesitate to reject such accounts as 
intrinsically improbable. 

Others carry the mistake still higher, and suppose 
it to have originated with Jesus himself. A dis- 
tinguished statesman of our own country has said of 
him : " Elevated by the enthusiasm of a warm and 
pure heart, conscious of the high strains of an elo- 
quence which had not been taught him, he might 
easily mistake the coruscations of his own fine 
genius for inspiration of a higher order. This belief, 
therefore, carried no more personal imputation than 
the belief of Socrates, that himself was under the 
care and admonitions of a guardian Daemon." 

But this imputation, under the color of doing 
honor to Christ and saving his personal character, 
strikes a fatal blow to all reliance on his teachings. 
In that case, what he has taught us on the subject 
of immortality, as a certainty positively known to 
himself, falls from that level to that of his individual 
opinion, the suffrage of his judgment upon a disputed 
matter of great uncertainty. And the weight of his 
opinion upon this subject, instead of being greater 



INTRODUCTORY. 11 

than that of other men, actually falls below it, 
from the circumstance that it is the opinion or suf- 
frage of a mind unhinged upon one point, and ca- 
pable of being misled by the false judgment that he 
was inspired by God. 

Another explanation of the origin of Christianity 
has been, that it was a pious fraud from the begin- 
ning. Jesus of Nazareth was a transcendent religious 
genius, and a zealous philanthropist and reformer. 
He saw the world sunk in barbarism and idolatry, 
and his own nation dwarfed and enslaved by igno- 
rance and superstition, and knowing that his coun- 
trymen expected about that time a great national 
deliverer, and that there were passages in their sacred 
writings which they deemed prophetical, he under- 
took a moral and religious reformation upon the 
basis of those prophecies and expectations. He 
knowingly misrepresented the dictates of his own 
powerful understanding, as the immediate inspira- 
tion of God. He either pretended to work miracles, 
or his followers pretended that he did. He com- 
menced a public ministry, and committed himself 
to the current of circumstances, to succeed or fail, 
as fortune might direct. He was successful in rally- 
ing around him a party, which formed the nucleus 
of a Church, an extensive organization which perpet- 
uated itself, and has continued to the present day ; 
but in doing so he became involved with the civil 
authorities, and lost his life. 

Such are some of the hypotheses which have been 
resorted to in order to account for the New Testa- 
ment and the Christian Church as historical phenom- 
ena, without admitting the supernatural element 



12 INTRODUCTORY. 

which they involve. I do not pretend to have ex- 
hausted them all. It may suffice to have given those 
already mentioned as specimens of the whole. 

Another class of unbelievers take another ground. 
They do not consider themselves bound to account 
for the New Testament or the Church at all. They 
bring forward certain parts of the New Testament, 
and certain things contained in it, as false or in- 
credible, and on the strength of them reject the 
whole book as fabulous and unreliable. 

An unbeliever there is, now alive, who has at- 
tempted to edify the world by detailing the process 
of rejection which went on in his own mind, till, in 
his own language, " Christ and the Devil faded out 
of his spiritual vision, only to leave more vividly God 
and Man." Such is his estimate of probabilities, 
that he considers an abstract a priori argument suf- 
ficient to refute the whole positive testimony of the 
New Testament. " It is," says he, " an unplausible 
opinion, that God would deviate from his ordinary 
course in order to give us anything so undesirable 
as an authoritative oracle would be, which would 
paralzye our moral powers exactly as an infallible 
Church does, in the very proportion to which we 
succeed in eliciting answers from it." This objec- 
tion has certainly the merit of originality to recom- 
mend it, with this further advantage, that it gives us 
the means of forming a judgment of the intellectual 
calibre of one of the most zealous of modern assailants 
of the divine origin and authority of Christianity. 

Another class of unbelievers tell us, that the New 
Testament is to be rejected as an authentic history 
of past transactions, because of the discrepancies of 



INTRODUCTORY. 13 

the different writers, and the variations of the testi- 
mony of the different witnesses. One gives the 
genealogy of Jesus as ascending through one line of 
ancestry, and another through another. One tells 
us that Judas, the traitor, died by his own hand in 
one way, and another in another. One says, that 
a certain field was bought by the rulers of the Jews 
with the price of treachery, which Judas brought 
back, and another, that it was bought by Judas him- 
self; and two different reasons are given why it was 
called « the field of blood." 

One Evangelist relates, that Jesus, on a certain 
occasion, in going out of Jericho, met tivo blind men, 
who were importunate in their entreaties to him to 
heal them, and he did so. Another, detailing the 
same accompanying circumstances, says, that there 
was one blind man, and gives his name as Bartimeus. 
The four Gospels give four different inscriptions upon 
the cross of Christ. It is naturally impossible that 
more than one of these can be verbally correct, and 
perhaps not one of them. 

But what follows from this ? That Christ was never 
crucified, and that no inscription was placed upon 
his cross ? He who should draw such a conclusion 
would outrage all reason and common sense. These 
different inscriptions only prove that the testimony 
is human, not that it is untrue. All human testi- 
mony admits of verbal and immaterial variations, 
without impairing its trustworthiness. It is so in 
matters involving life and death. So the two different 
genealogies of Jesus do not prove that there was no 
such person, or that he was not a lineal descendant 
of David. He might have been descended from the 
2 



14 INTRODUCTORY. 

royal stock by several lines, as we are all equally 
descended from sixteen progenitors of the fourth de- 
gree. Certain it is, that the genealogy of Christ 
must have been satisfactory to his contemporaries ; 
for no one would have been listened to a moment 
who pretended to be the Messiah, unless he could 
show his descent, by the public registers, from the 
royal lineage of David and Solomon. 

Others are scandalized by certain opinions, which 
they allege were entertained by the writers of the 
New Testament. It seems evident to them, that 
the Apostles believed in a personal Devil, and in the 
existence of wicked spirits, which had the power to 
possess and torment mankind, — to inflict upon them 
bodily diseases, and mental disorders; and that Jesus 
actually drove them out, and delivered men from 
their inflictions. Men entertaining such puerile su- 
perstitions are not to be trusted as witnesses of 
matters of fact, nor as historians of the events of 
their own age. 

But it maybe answered, that all history extending 
back more than three hundred years, on this prin- 
ciple, must be set aside as altogether uncertain, since 
the belief in witchcraft was universal before that 
period, and the wisest of men took part in putting 
their fellow-creatures to death for the crime of witch- 
craft. The origin of diseases was a matter of science, 
and not of religion ; and a religious teacher, who 
should have attempted to set the world right on all 
matters of science collateral with religion, would 
have accomplished nothing, and probably have fallen 
a sacrifice to his philosophical doctrines quite as soon 
as to his religious dogmas. 



INTRODUCTORY. 15 

The same is true of the geological opinions which 
then prevailed of the structure of the earth. It was 
thought to be a plain, instead of a globe, having be- 
neath it a vast expanse, corresponding in depth and 
extent to the height and breadth of heaven above. To 
this world they seem to have supposed that all souls 
descended when released from the body, not except- 
ing the soul of Christ himself. Any- attempt to cor- 
rect this universal opinion would have been useless, 
and it was better left to the progress of science and 
discovery. 

Gibbon has made it the ground of profane scoff, 
and, as he supposed, a triumphant reason for the 
rejection of Christianity, that the Apostles seem to 
have expected a personal return of Christ to the earth 
during their own day, or at least at no distant period. 
If this be admitted, what inference can be legiti- 
mately drawn from it ? Does it affect their credibility 
as witnesses ? — for this is the capacity in which they 
stand between us and Christ. Not at all. It merely 
concerns the extent of their inspiration. There is a 
previous and very important question : Was it taught 
by Christ, or was it a misinterpretation of his language, 
which it required merely the lapse of time to correct? 
Is it credible that he did teach such a doctrine, at the 
same time that he professed to be promulgating a 
universal religion, and the call of those very disciples 
made a part of his arrangements for " teaching that 
religion to all nations " ? He professed to be that 
personage to whom Abraham and Moses and the 
prophets looked forward, as ushering in a more im- 
portant period of the world's history than had ever 
occurred before ; when men should no longer wor- 



16 INTRODUCTORY. 

ship God in this locality or that, but the true and 
spiritual worshippers should worship him acceptably 
all over the earth. It is incredible that Jesus, while 
utterring such predictions, and making such arrange- 
ments, could have taught that the world was soon 
coming to an end. The very enterprise of Chris- 
tianizing the world must itself consume ages and 
centuries. 

Others have taken offence at the phraseology of 
the New Testament, or rather at the doctrines which 
have been drawn from certain expressions used by 
Jesus and his Apostles. Jesus called himself the 
Son of God. And upon this expression, and others 
analogous to it, a most wonderful mythology has 
been constructed. As a son ordinarily has the same 
nature with his father, Jesus of Nazareth, besides his 
human nature, was supposed to have had a divine 
nature, derived immediately from the essence of God, 
and partaking of all his attributes. An analysis of 
the New Testament shows that this epithet had 
originally no such signification. Christ himself ex- 
plained his use of it to have reference, not to his 
nature, but his mission, his having been " sanctified 
and sent into the world by God." 

The same is true with the sacrificial language of the 
New Testament. At first sight it has the appearance 
of teaching the transfer of human guilt from one per- 
son to another, and, of course, the irrational doctrine 
of suffering punishment by proxy, and acquiring right- 
eousness in the same way. These things being 
moral impossibilities, if really taught in the Scrip- 
tures, would diminish, if not destroy, their credibility 
as containing a revelation from God. 



INTRODUCTORY. 17 

It is the object of the following Discourses to meet 
and obviate these various objections, to show, in op- 
position to the unbeliever, that Christianity has a 
solid basis of historical facts ; that the history of the 
New Testament is an extract from the history of the 
world, and not an interpolation into it; that the Apos- 
tles were real men among the actors in the scenes of 
the past ; that the variations of the Gospels are im- 
material ; and that, admitting almost any hypothesis 
of their origin, these compositions leave certain and 
undeniable the unique and extraordinary personality 
of Jesus Christ ; they make certain his appearance 
among men, and the principal events of his life; 
they make certain his agency in establishing the 
Christian Church, in promulgating its doctrines and 
precepts and establishing its rites and discipline, 
and, moreover, his consciousness of a mission from 
God to take the position he assumed, and to do the 
work which he accomplished. 

It will be the purpose of these Discourses to ana- 
lyze the New Testament into its constituent ele- 
ments ; to show that it is not a homogeneous book, 
— that it contains various elements, such as His- 
tory, Doctrines, Opinions, and Phraseology. 

When thus sent into the world by God, and au- 
thenticated as his Messenger, Christ taught certain 
doctrines, which embrace all the fundamental princi- 
ples of religion, and gave them in charge to his 
disciples, to be perpetuated to the end of the world. 
But in inculcating these doctrines he necessarily 
used the language of the age and nation to which 
he belonged. He alluded to opinions which were 
then extant, without affirming or denying them. T 



18 INTRODUCTORY. 

intend to show that it is highly improper and unjust 
to make these floating opinions constituent elements 
of Christianity, and then to set aside Christianity as 
untrue, because the floating opinions of that age 
were erroneous or superstitious. As well might it 
be attempted to deny the truth of all the science of 
this age, because scientific men still continue to 
speak with the multitude of the sun's rising and set- 
tings although it is a well-established fact, that the 
sun neither rises nor sets, but the daily revolution of 
the earth upon its axis gives rise to this optical de- 
ception. 

I intend, moreover, to demonstrate, that, of the 
four elements I have enumerated, the fourth, Phrase- 
ology, consisting of the mere modes of expression 
belonging to the age and nation, is equally demon- 
strable with the others. These were Judaisms and 
Orientalisms, forms of speech highly figurative or 
hyperbolic, which to our Occidental ears seem at 
first sight to have an extraordinary meaning, but 
on closer examination are found to relate to common 
and familiar things. 

When these distinctions are made, it will be seen 
that the grounds of most of the controversies which 
have prevailed in the Christian Church are taken 
away. Many of them have arisen from pressing to 
a literal meaning words and phrases originally 
figurative. Many more have arisen from confound- 
ing opinions alluded to with doctrines affirmed. 

It will be seen, that the scope of these Discourses 
is to remove the causes of scepticism and sectarianism^ 
the great evils of the present age. It is to show, 
that a thorough study of the New Testament, in- 



INTRODUCTORY. 19 

stead of revealing new and insurmountable difficul- 
ty in the way of its reception as a revelation from 
God, instead of showing that it is a dishonest record 
made by contemporaries with an intent to deceive, or 
a forgery of after times, palmed off upon the world 
as the production of a former age, every feature bears 
the impress and lineaments of its appropriate age, 
and carries us back, with graphic and unmistakable 
minuteness of particularity, to the interesting scenes 
of the first planting of the Gospel in Judaea, eighteen 
centuries ago. 

The tendency of these Discourses will be to per- 
suade the reader, that the account given in the New 
Testament of the origin of the Gospel and of the 
Christian Church is not only historically, but philo- 
sophically, true. The New Testament and the Chris- 
tian Church are phenomena now extant in the world. 
Every thinking man must have some way of account- 
ing for the manner in which they came into existence. 
If the positions taken in the following Discourses 
are just, the most obvious way is the true way. The 
New Testament is what it is, the Church assumed 
the form it took in the age of the Apostles, because 
Jesus was what he assumed to be, a divinely inspired 
and authenticated Messenger from God. Place him 
in that position, and everything becomes natural 
and consistent. Probable causes are assigned for 
known effects. The language, the sentiments, and 
the conduct of the Apostles and early Christians are 
accounted for by the well-known laws of the human 
mind. Place him in any other position, suppose 
him to have been an enthusiast, mistaking the 
promptings of a superior genius for Divine inspira- 



20 INTRODUCTORY. 

tion, and his profound, calm, unerring, transcendent 
wisdom becomes wholly irreconcilable with the 
hypothesis. Such wisdom could not have inhabited 
the same mind with such fundamental error and hal- 
lucination. The supposition that he made claims 
which he knew did not belong to him, is made 
wholly impossible by an integrity which knew no 
stain, and a piety that never lost communion with 
God. 

As little ground is there for the last refuge of un- 
belief, that Christianity was the natural growth and 
production of the age in which it sprang up ; that He- 
brew theology, Greek philosophy, and Oriental the- 
osophy, mingling together in Palestine, corrected each 
other's errors, and combined the truth that was in all 
into a new and sublimer system of faith, a more 
perfect system of morality than the world had ever 
known before. 

It is sufficient simply to deny that any such ele- 
ments were then in existence, and that Jesus ever 
had access to them if there were. We know from 
contemporary history and literature the whole com- 
pass of Jewish thought. We know what were the 
then predominant sects, the Pharisees, the Saddu- 
cees, and the Essenes. We know that they, each and 
all, had perverted and debased, instead of perfecting, 
the religion of the Mosaic dispensation. The Mishna 
and the Talmuds are all-sufficient documents to con- 
vince us, that the pure religion of the New Testa- 
ment could never have originated in the trifling 
legends and the absurd puerilities of those deposito- 
ries of superstition. Josephus tells us tales of the 
practical morality of his countrymen, which make 



INTRODUCTORY. • 21 

us agree with him in pronouncing that age and na- 
tion the most corrupt and sinful that ever cumbered 
the earth. 

The records of Greek philosophy are open to us. 
We know the varieties of opinion into which the 
wise men of Greece were divided, and what great 
uncertainty hung over all their speculations. We 
know how imperfect were all their teachings upon 
the subjects of morality and religion, and how ut- 
terly impotent were they to produce a moral regen- 
eration of society, or even to persuade men to lead 
a discreet and well-ordered life. And the vices of the 
period of the first Roman Emperors have left a dark 
shadow on the history of the world. 

Oriental theosophy, or the mythology of the East, 
presents to the sober mind of the present day noth- 
ing but a shadowy region of dreams, in which reason 
wanders in vain to find an object which bears even 
a remote resemblance to any known reality. 

To say, then, that the religion of Jesus was merely 
the culmination of the thought of the time, that 
Jesus was simply the man of his age, the organ by 
which was made articulate the truth which had been 
evolved by the wisdom* and experience of preceding 
ages, is making an assertion not only erroneous, but 
extravagantly false. No ! Christianity was not the 
convergency of rays of light already in the world, it 
was new light from above, shining upon the world 
through the mind of Jesus of Nazareth. It was not 
a reform indicated by the wants of the time, and 
precipitated by a simultaneous movement of inde- 
pendent minds. It was an impulse from heaven, 
which was felt first in the soul of Christ, was her- 



22 INTRODUCTORY. 

aided by the voice in the wilderness, was inaugu- 
rated by the baptism in the Jordan, and was au- 
thenticated by miraculous powers, from the marriage 
of Cana to the sepulchre and the Mount of Ascen- 
sion. Nothing else can adequately account to my 
mind for the origin of that revolution in human 
affairs which then and there commenced. The son 
of a carpenter, brought up in an obscure village of a 
despised nation, without education, without wealth, 
and without friends, could have no more accom- 
plished it, without divine and superhuman aid, than 
he could have created the world. 



DISCOURSE II. 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

AND IF CHRIST BE NOT RISEN, THEN IS GUR PREACHING VAIN, 
AND YOUR FAITH IS ALSO VAIN. TEA, AND WE ARE FOUND 
FALSE WITNESSES OF GOD ; BECAUSE WE HAVE TESTIFIED 
OF GOD THAT HE RAISED UP CHRIST : WHOM HE RAISED 

not up, if so be that the dead rise not. — 1 Corin- 
thians xv. 14, 15. 

Christianity is founded on historical facts. His- 
torical facts are its first and fundamental element. 
Take away these, and the whole superstructure falls 
to the ground. Such was the opinion of Paul, after 
having preached the Gospel for twenty years. Among 
those fundamental facts he places the resurrection of 
Christ as the chief corner-stone. He makes it in 
fact to be the Gospel itself, the glad news which the 
Apostles were commissioned to announce to the 
world. Of this event the Apostles were the chief 
witnesses, and the fact of having seen and conversed 
with him alive after his resurrection was a necessary 
qualification to make a person eligible as an Apostle. 
When the eleven were about to fill the place of Judas 
Iscariot, it was made a requisite in the candidate 
that he should have been an eyewitness to the min- 



24 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

istry of Christ, and especially of his having risen from 
the dead. Peter, in his speech upon the occasion, holds 
the following language : " Wherefore, of these men 
which have companied with us all the time that the 
Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning 
from the baptism of John unto that same day that he 
was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a 
witness with us of his resurrection" 

Writing to the Corinthians, four-and-twenty years 
after the event, Paul makes use of the following re- 
markable language : " Moreover, brethren, I declare 
unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, 
which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, 
by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory 
what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed 
in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that 
which I also received, how that Christ died for our 
sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was 
buried, and that he rose again the third day according 
to the Scriptures ; and that he was seen of Cephas, 
then of the twelve. After that he was seen of above 
five hundred brethren at once, of whom a greater 
part remain unto this day, but some are fallen asleep. 
After that he was seen of James ; then of all the 
Apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as 
of one born out of due time." In this same Epistle, 
in another place, he makes the fact of having seen 
Christ after his resurrection a necessary qualification 
for apostleship. " Am not I an Apostle ? have not I 
seen Jesus Christ our Lord ? " 

The historical basis of Christianity, and the pri- 
mary importance of the resurrection, are testified by 
Peter, in his speech to Cornelius and his companions. 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 25 

What is called by the Apostle Paul " the Gospel " 
which he preached, is called by Peter " the word 
which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching 
peace by Jesus Christ ; (he is Lord of all ;) that word 
ye know, which was published throughout all Judasa 
and began from Galilee, after the baptism which 
John preached : how God anointed Jesus of Naza- 
reth with the Holy Ghost and with power ; who went 
about doing good and healing all that were oppressed 
with the devil : for God was with him. And we are 
witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land 
of the Jews, and in Jerusalem ; whom they slew and 
hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the third day, 
and showed him openly, not to all the people, but 
unto ivitnesses, chosen before of God, even to us 
who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the 
dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the 
people, and to testify that it is he which was or- 
dained to be Judge of quick and dead. To him give 
all the prophets witness, that through his name who- 
soever believeth in him shall receive remission of 
sins." 

The fundamental importance of the fact of the res- 
urrection is declared often, and in many different ways, 
in the New Testament. When Paul came to Athens, 
and addressed the multitude on Mars' Hill, the bur- 
den of his discourse was understood to be "Jesus and 
the resurrection." His commission, as the Lawgiver 
and Judge of mankind, according to that speech, was 
sealed by that event : " Because he hath appointed 
a day in the which he will judge the world in right- 
eousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; where- 
of he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he 
3 



26 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

hath raised him from the dead." In the same strain 
he commences his Epistle to the Romans : " Paul, a 
servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, sep- 
arated unto the Gospel of God, (which he had prom- 
ised afore by his prophets in the holy Scriptures,) 
concerning his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, which 
was made of the seed of David according to the 
flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, 
according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection 
from the dead" Peter, in his First Epistle, expresses 
in language still more emphatic the bearing which 
the resurrection of Christ has on our hopes of im- 
mortality : " Blessed be the God and Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant 
mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope, by 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 

Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, from which 
we have just quoted, goes on in the strongest lan- 
guage to state the intimate connection which, to his 
mind, subsisted between the resurrection of Christ 
and the doctrine of immortality. " Now if Christ be 
preached that he rose from the dead, how say some 
among you that there is no resurrection of the dead ? 
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is 
Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is 
our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, 
and ice are found false witnesses of God, because we 
have testified of God that he raised up Christ ; whom 
he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not." 

It is not too much to say, from these various cita- 
tions, that the Apostles, the writers of the New Tes- 
tament, unanimously considered the resurrection of 
Christ to be the main fact of the Gospel, the very 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 27 

hinge upon which the whole enterprise turned. If 
they were mistaken in this, it was all a delusion, and 
they themselves the most miserable and unfortunate 
of men. " If in this life only we have hope in Christ, 
we are of all men most miserable." " Why stand we 
in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing 
which I have in Christ Jesus, I die daily. If after 
the manner of men I have fought with beasts at 
Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise not. 
Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." 

To this testimony of the resurrection of Christ 
the'se Apostles remained constant during their lives, 
and for it they freely shed their blood and died. 

But God so ordered the course of things, that 
succeeding ages should not only have the best direct 
testimony to the resurrection of Jesus, but the strong- 
est indirect evidence. Great occurrences impress 
themselves upon the times in which they happen. 
Their actual occurrence is testified not only by words, 
but by actions and events. The whole course of 
things is influenced and shaped by them. As causes, 
they produce effects, which remain to bear witness 
of them, and are wholly unaccountable without them. 
It was thus, I think, in an eminent degree, with the 
resurrection of Christ. If any reliance is to be placed 
on the narratives of the Evangelists, a most remark- 
able change took place in the conduct and character, 
the opinions, the feelings, and the purposes of the dis- 
ciples about the time at which the resurrection is 
said to have taken place, and just such a change as 
such an event would naturally produce. That 
Christ was crucified there can be no doubt. That 
his followers were poor and illiterate men, natives of 



28 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

Galilee, and strangers at Jerusalem, there can be as 
little reason to call in question. That they were 
wholly destitute of resources is evident from the fact 
that they were unable to give their deceased Master 
the rites of sepulture. This was done by strangers, 
Nicodemus the counsellor, and Joseph, a rich man of 
Arimathea. Their hopes in their Master had been 
utterly disappointed. They had come to Jerusalem 
with the expectation of seeing him soon a king. 
But instead of this he was crucified, and they were 
scattered. They seem to have resumed their former 
pursuits, and given over all expectations as the fol- 
lowers of Jesus. But on a sudden they rally, they 
come together, they deliberate in private, they act 
together in public, they attract multitudes, they pro- 
duce a deep impression, they testify that their Mas- 
ter had risen from the dead. To that testimony they 
were ready to sacrifice their lives. Thousands be- 
lieved their testimony, for not only were they wit- 
nesses, but there were in their midst the five hundred 
who had seen him alive after his public execution. 
Could such a change have taken place in the disci- 
ples without an adequate cause ? Is it in human 
nature to stand forth in the face of multitudes and 
assert a falsehood, from which they could derive no 
sort of advantage, and which subjected them to perse- 
cution and death ? This of course is an argument 
which addresses itself to the minds of men in all ages. 
There are, moreover, in the narratives, traces of 
great excitement produced by this event, precisely 
such as would naturally be caused by an occurrence 
of such magnitude, interest, and importance. On 
the occurrence of an extraordinary event, it so ab- 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 29 

sorbs men's minds that they become incapable of at- 
tending to their ordinary employments. They are 
seen collected in groups, exchanging their thoughts 
and feelings. Sympathy becomes intense, and they 
are unwilling to separate. We read in the Acts, that 
immediately on the return of the disciples to Jeru- 
salem from Mount Olivet, from which they had seen 
Christ ascend, they came together. " And when they 
were come in, they went up into an upper room, 
where abode both Peter and James and John and 
Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Mat- 
thew, James the son of Alpheus and Simon Zelotes, 
and Judas the brother of James. These all continued 
with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the 
women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his 
brethren." These particulars of names and place and 
time add greatly to the probability of the narrative. 
Their employment, too, prayers and supplications, is 
a very natural one for persons who had just witnessed 
such a spectacle as seeing a beloved friend ascend to 
heaven, and an exercise not at all likely to occupy a 
band of false witnesses, conspiring to deceive the 
world and delude all nations. In another place it is 
said of them : " And they, continuing daily with one 
accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house 
to house, did eat their meat with gladness and sin- 
gleness of heart, praising God and having favor with 
all the people." Could anything be more natural 
than this enthusiasm under the circumstances ? 

There is another incident recorded, which furnishes 
a still stronger proof that something extraordinary 
had occurred. The last thing which men are dis- 
posed to do is to relinquish their property. They 
3* 



30 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

usually grasp it with tenacious hold till their hands 
are unclasped by death. That must be a mighty 
impulse which has power to overcome this attach- 
ment. Iri these first days of the existence of the 
Christian Church, the phenomenon was presented of 
a community giving up their private property, their 
own hard earnings and careful savings, and the in- 
heritances transmitted to them by their fathers, and 
throwing it into a common stock for the support of 
all. The most rational explanation of this anoma- 
lous fact is the mighty impression made by the res- 
urrection of Jesus. "And all that believed were to- 
gether, and had all things common, and sold their 
possessions and goods, and parted them to all* men 
as every man had need." In another place it is 
said : " And the multitude of them that believed 
were of one heart and one soul, neither said any of 
them that aught of the things that he possessed was 
his own, but they had all things common." The 
reason of this, as it seems to me, is casually and 
unconsciously thrown in by the historian himself: 
11 And with great power gave the Apostles ivitness of 
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace 
was upon them all. Neither was there any among 
them that lacked ; for as many as were possessors of 
lands or houses sold them, and brought the price of 
the things that were sold and laid them down at the 
Apostles' feet ; and distribution was made unto every 
man according as he had need." 

These things, in my judgment, show a very great 
disturbance of the ordinary condition of the human 
mind in the first Christian community, and it can be 
accounted for only on the supposition of the occur- 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 31 

rence of an extraordinary event, and that event was 
the resurrection of Jesus. The natural effect of it 
would be, to turn the minds of those who believed 
it, and especially those who witnessed it, most pow- 
erfully to the spiritual world. The realities of that 
world, instead of dwelling, as they had done, in a 
dim and distant obscurity, were brought near, and 
they nearly absorbed their attention. By a natural 
revulsion, the things of this world, from having en- 
grossed too much, occupied too little of their atten- 
tion, and they adopted a mode of living, which, if it 
had been continued, would have ultimately been de- 
structive of society. 

As striking, deep, and lasting an impression was 
made upon the character, the sentiments, and the pur- 
poses of the disciples. A total change took place in 
them, corresponding to their new experience. Before 
the resurrection of their Master, they appear worldly, 
ambitious, narrow-minded. Afterwards they become 
spiritual, disinterested, generous ; their thoughts and 
purposes are turned to heaven and heavenly things. 
A piety and a spirituality breathe through their writ- 
ings and their conduct, which you search for in vain 
among all the records of the human race. As we 
read them, we find ourselves in the very presence of 
heavenly things. They seem to " count all things 
but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus 
Christ their Lord." What could possibly make a 
deeper impression upon any one of us, than repeated, 
certain, sober, and assured interviews with a de- 
parted friend, returned from the invisible world, thus 
making immortality sure, changing faith into vision, 
and hope into certainty ? To us it would be much, 



32 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

to the disciples it was more. It not only made them 
certain of immortality, but it constituted them its 
heralds and witnesses to the world. It was a seal at 
once of Christ's mission and their own. It made 
them the main agents in the mightiest enterprise 
that was ever undertaken, the spiritual regeneration 
of the world. They rose up at once, from timid, un- 
cultivated fishermen and peasants, to magnanimous 
heroes, apostles, martyrs, prepared to face a multi- 
tude, and to stand unappalled before kings and mag- 
istrates. And in Jerusalem, the very city where but 
a few weeks ago they had slunk away from public 
notice, on the crucifixion of their Master, utterly dis- 
comfited and disheartened, they stand forth and ac- 
cuse their countrymen and their rulers as being 
guilty of an atrocious and malicious murder, and a 
murder only extenuated by their ignorance of the 
magnitude of the crime they were perpetrating. 

Thus it is that succeeding ages have had, not only 
direct, but circumstantial, proof of the resurrection of 
Jesus. The Apostles and primitive disciples bore 
witness, not only by words, but by deeds, of their 
belief, at least, of the return of their Master to life, 
after he had been consigned to the tomb. The gen- 
eral tone of the whole record corroborates the fact, 
from the commencement of the Acts to the end of 
the Apocalypse. 

This event, in fact, constituted a new era in the his- 
tory of the world. Piety, from that moment, started 
on a new and higher level. Eternity, thus revealed and 
brought near, began to exert a constraining power 
on the consciousness, the character, and the life of 
man. The first day of the week was consecrated 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 33 

for ever to be a day of commemoration, of religious 
meditation, of public worship, of holy employment. 

But the resurrection of Christ being thus estab- 
lished by human testimony, and by circumstantial 
evidence, what was its influence in the world ? It 
was to give authority to the Gospel, and to establish 
the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. It authen- 
ticated Christ as the Ambassador of God. It made 
his word to be law, and his promises to be regarded 
as the truth. It enthroned him in the reverence and 
the confidence of mankind. As it is expressed in 
the splendid, though somewhat indefinite, language 
of Oriental hyperbole, by the Apostle- Paul, in his 
Epistle to the Ephesians : " That the God of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give 
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
knowledge of him ; the eyes of your understanding 
being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope 
of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of 
his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceed- 
ing greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, 
according to the working of his mighty power, which 
he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the 
dead, and set him at his own right hand in the 
heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, 
and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
named, not only in this world, but also in that which 
is to come ; and hath put all things under his feet, 
and gave him to be the head over all things to the 
Church, which is his body, the fulness of him that 
filleth all in all." 

The same idea is expressed by the author of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, in still more magnificent 



34 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

phraseology. The language is enriched by a greater 
exuberance of metaphors, drawn from Christ's son- 
ship and priesthood, by the force of one of which he 
is made heir of all things, and of the other is said to 
have expiated the sins of the world and "tasted 
death for every man " : " God, who at sundry times 
and in divers manners spake in time past unto the 
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spo- 
ken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed 
heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds ; 
who being the brightness of his glory, and the ex- 
press image of his person, and controlling all things 
by his powerful word, when he had by himself 
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the 
Majesty on high; being made so much better than 
the angels, as he hath, by inheritance, obtained a 
more excellent name than they." 

Now, how infinitely absurd would such language 
as this have appeared, had Christ never risen from 
the dead ! But it was borne out and justified, in the 
fervid imaginations of the Orientals, by the exalta- 
tion which that event gave to his person and his re- 
ligion. It established his Gospel to be God's word 
and law, and therefore clothed Christ with God's 
authority, which, in Eastern phrase, is being placed 
at God's right hand, to share, as God's son, in his 
dominion. The same fact made the spread of his 
religion a necessity, and its universality inevitable. 
Christ was, therefore, in a spiritual sense, the heir 
of the world. "When here on earth, he appeared to 
be clothed with miraculous power and with mirac- 
ulous knowledge, the most resplendent of the Divine 
attributes, and thus stood as God's image and rep- 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 



35 



resentative on earth. His mission constituted an 
epoch in the history of the world and in the revolu- 
tion of ages. To it the ages before looked forward, 
to it the ages since have looked back. To all this 
glory he ascended, and without the resurrection not 
a whisper of all this exaltation would ever have been 
heard on earth. It is the risen Saviour who is head 
of the Church. It is this fact which gives the Com- 
munion any rational significance or any moral power. 
It is the spiritual presence of the risen Saviour which 
gives that rite the power to pierce the veil which sep- 
arates the visible from the invisible world, dispels 
the fear of dissolution, and brings on earth the life 
of heaven. 

In conclusion, the resurrection of Christ established 
the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and made 
it an article, not only of speculative belief, but of 
practical influence. It is in the way of God's provi- 
dence, to teach by particular facts, and not by gen- 
eral principles. It is the constitution of the human 
mind, to be taught by ascending from particular facts 
to general principles, and not by descending from 
general principles to particular facts. One palpable 
fact makes a stronger impression upon us than vol- 
umes of speculation. God revealed himself to the 
children of Israel, not as the God of the whole earth, 
but as " the God who brought them out of the land 
of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage," and, 
having established this fact, left them to infer, by 
the light of their own reason, if, having done this, he 
could be any other than the God of the whole earth. 
So, having raised Christ from the dead, who had 
preached the doctrine of immortality, he left mankind 



36 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

to the conclusion of their own reason, whether death 
were necessarily the destruction of our being, and 
whether it were not the purpose of the Creator of 
man to raise him to a new and immortal life. " As 
by man came death, so by man came the resurrec- 
tion of the dead." God knew the principles of the 
human mind which he addressed, and he knew the 
inference men would draw, that " as in Adam all die, 
so in Christ shall all be made alive," and the result 
has commended the wisdom of the arrangement. 
Furnished with this single fact, the twelve Apostles, 
obscure individuals of a despised race though they 
were, and persecuted everywhere, accomplished more 
in establishing the conviction of the immortality of 
the soul, than all the philosophers of the heathen 
world, though aided by the highest rank, the most 
extensive learning, and consummate eloquence. The 
private schools of the philosophers were forsaken for 
the humble churches of the Apostles, for the simple 
reason, that what was taught in one as a philosophic 
probability was promulgated in the other as a posi- 
tive, ascertained fact. Zeno, Plato, Aristotle, and 
Epicurus had propounded many things that seemed 
like truth, but they were all uncertain, and different 
from each other. Truth is but one, and Christ 
taught it without error and with satisfactory author- 
ity. All those philosophers had yielded to the com- 
mon lot of humanity, they had died like other men, 
and their ashes had been blown about the earth, or 
buried beneath it. Christ had not only taught, but 
demonstrated, immortality. He had returned to life, 
been conversant for forty days with his former com- 
panions, and then ascended to heaven in their sight. 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 37 

Here, then, was something additional to the light of 
nature, on a subject the most interesting of all others 
to the human mind, and it quickened men's moral 
and religious natures, and gave confidence to their 
hopes of immortality, precisely in proportion to their 
reliance on the original testimony of the Apostles. 

Thus it is that Christianity is founded on histori- 
cal facts, facts of such a nature as to be the proper 
subjects of human testimony, submitted to the calm 
scrutiny of the senses, showing themselves in the 
conduct and sentiments to which they led, and im- 
pressing themselves upon the age in which they hap- 
pened. 

Among them, and towering far above them all, is 
the resurrection of Christ, It is the keystone of the 
arch of Christian faith. Take this away, and it all 
falls a heap of ruins. The Christian Church is a 
building without a foundation, our preaching is vain, 
and your faith is also vain. " But now is Christ 
risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of 
them that slept." " This corruptible must put on 
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immor- 
tality." 



DISCOURSE III 



REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 

THE FORMER TREATISE HAVE I MADE, O THEOPHILUS, OP 
ALL THAT JESUS BEGAN BOTH TO DO AND TEACH, UNTIL 
THE DAY IN WHICH HE WAS TAKEN UP, AFTER THAT HE 
THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST HAD GIVEN COMMANDMENTS 
UNTO THE APOSTLES WHOM HE HAD CHOSEN: TO WHOM 
ALSO HE SHOWED HIMSELF ALIVE AFTER HIS PASSION, BY 
MANY INFALLIBLE PROOFS, BEING SEEN OF THEM FORTY 
DAYS, AND SPEAKING OF THE THINGS PERTAINLNG TO THE 
KINGDOM OF GOD. — Acts i. 1 — 3. 

Most persons, on reading the New Testament, 
receive from it a strong impression of historic truth. 
They feel that they are reading of real persons and 
real transactions. It has been so from the beginning. 
The bare reading of the record has generally pro- 
duced faith. There have been millions and millions 
of believers in Christianity, yet few of them have 
read any treatise on the evidences of Christianity. 
The bare, naked narrative, just as it stands on the 
sacred pages, has been sufficient to produce belief. 
Ninety-nine out of a hundred have believed the 
whole, and the sceptical have been compelled to be- 
lieve it up to the very borders of the supernatural. 



REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 39 

It is next to impossible, for any person possessing 
ordinary human faculties, to read the New Testa- 
ment, and entertain a serious doubt that there was 
such a person as Jesus Christ, or call in question the 
reality of his ministry. The real existence of his 
most prominent Apostles is no less unquestionable. 
Peter, John, and Paul are as real to us as Caesar, An- 
tony, and Cicero. There is the same difference to us 
when we read of them and the imaginary beings of 
romance, as there is when we see a real child beside 
a lifeless doll, a living man beside a dead statue, a 
cluster of natural flowers beside a bunch of painted 
ribbons. The sceptic cannot deny this, as I have 
already said, up to the very borders of the super- 
natural. And then the supernatural is so interwoven 
with the natural, they so interpenetrate each other, 
they are so connected, as cause and effect, and so 
grow out of each other and into each other, that they 
cannot be separated without violence, and without 
utter destruction to the whole tissue. This is the 
strong ground of Christianity. This is the reason 
why it has obtained so wide a reception in the world, 
without any argumentation. It has all the marks of 
simple nature so plainly, substance, form, complexion, 
action, that it is as spontaneous to believe, as to be- 
lieve in the existence of external nature, which daily 
presents itself to our senses. 

It is the purpose of this discourse to detect, ana- 
lyze, define, and enumerate the causes which pro- 
duce this almost universal belief in the historical 
truth of the New Testament. Every historical trans- 
action, real or fictitious, must have a time and a 
place, must have actors, or persons concerned in it ; 



40 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

and, to be credible, must have consistency and rea- 
sonableness, that is to say, the events must agree 
with each other, the persons must act in character, 
and the various movements must be capable of be- 
ing accounted for by those motives which ordinarily 
govern the conduct of human beings. All these 
features of truth, I contend, are found in the New 
Testament. 

In the first place, the narrative of the New Testa- 
ment has a time. It is not placed at a period ante- 
historic or unhistoric. The time of the events related 
by the Evangelists and Apostles is placed at a period 
which embraces the reigns of four of the first five of 
the Roman Emperors, a period when the civilization, 
the literature, and intelligence of the ancient world 
reached the highest point of development. They 
were contemporary with three of the greatest Roman 
historians, and with Josephus and Philo, almost the 
only eminent writers in the Greek language which 
the Jewish nation ever produced. The period, then, 
was eminently historic. The eminent men and most 
important transactions of that age are almost as 
well known as the conspicuous events and characters 
of England during the last century. The attempt 
to interpolate a chapter into the history of the world 
in such an age as that, which should introduce a 
number of the most conspicuous individuals of the 
time, would be utterly desperate ; as much so as for 
a writer of the present day to forge a journal of 
Franklin in Paris, during the Revolutionary war, and 
introduce into it the names of the principal men then 
upon the stage in such a way that the narrative 
could possibly be true. No ingenuity can make his- 



REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 41 

torical events contemporaneous which were not so, 
and no care could prevent a fictitious narrative from 
betraying itself in this particular. The birth of Christ, 
the first event recorded, is represented to have taken 
place during the reign of Augustus Caesar. The 
time of his accession to the empire, and of his death, 
are as well known as the commencement and termi- 
nation of the French Revolution. One of the last 
historical events is the trial of Paul before Nero, at 
Rome. The time of his elevation to the empire, and 
his suicide, are as well known as the career of Napo- 
leon. Two intermediate Emperors are named in 
their proper order, Tiberius and Claudius Caesar. 
The crucifixion of Christ is said to have taken place 
under the administration and by the agency of 
Pontius Pilate, as Roman governor, and of Caia- 
phas, the high-priest of the Jews. Roman history 
informs us that Pilate was in fact governor of Judaea 
from about the twenty-seventh to the thirty-seventh 
year of the Christian era. That Caiaphas was high- 
priest during the whole ministry of Jesus, appears 
from the fact that Josephus mentions his having 
been appointed to that office by the predecessor of 
Pilate, and removed from office by the President of 
Syria after he had sent Pilate home to Rome to be 
tried for maleadministration. 

Dates and periods are dangerous things to intro- 
duce into a fictitious narrative. One of the opponents 
of Jesus is made to say to him, near the commence- 
ment of his ministry, " Forty and six years was this 
temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three 
days ? " This passage has given commentators some 
difficulty. The first temple was built in seven years, 
4* 



42 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

the second in twenty-one. The temple built by 
Herod, and the one in which Jesus taught, was so 
far completed as to be used within ten years from its 
commencement. In what sense, then, could the Jew- 
ish temple be said to have been forty-six years in 
building? Josephus tells us, that in the reign of 
Nero, more than twenty years after the ministry of 
Christ, the temple was finished. The building must 
have been going on then at the time of Christ, and 
computing the time backwards to the time of its com- 
mencement, as dated by the same Josephus, about 
forty-six years must have elapsed. So that a date 
which at first sight presents a difficulty becomes, 
when explained, a means of ascertaining the period 
of Christ's ministry, instead of overthrowing the 
credibility of the narrative. 

So much for the time when the events recorded in 
the New Testament took place. Let us now look 
at the circumstances ol place. The New Testament 
is full of local allusions, which, if consistent with 
facts, are strong features of historical reality. Judaea, 
the scene of Christ's ministry, remains in its general 
characteristics as it was in his age. The river Jor- 
dan, the Sea of Galilee, the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, 
are unchanged. Most of the towns and villages are 
still recognized. Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, 
are still extant. The identity of other and inferior 
places is still preserved with greater or less accuracy. 
There is enough of locality in the New Testament to 
create a strong impression of reality, by a reference 
to things as they now exist. He who now goes from 
Galilee to Jerusalem must needs go through Sama- 
ria. Jacob's well is still there, where the Saviour sat 



REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 43 

and talked with the woman who came out to draw 
water. He who goes from Galilee to Jerusalem 
must go " up" and he who travels from Jerusalem to 
Jericho, as did the man who fell among thieves, 
must go " down." He who now visits Jerusalem, 
and sees the elevation upon which the temple stood, 
must perceive how truth manifests itself in little cir- 
cumstances. " Two men," said the Saviour, " went 
up into the temple to pray." Philip "went down 
from Jerusalem to the city of Samaria " to preach 
the Gospel after the ascension of Christ; and no 
one can make the same journey now without 
going down. What was once Bethany is now 
about eight furlongs from Jerusalem, and a person 
now travelling thence to Jerusalem would " descend " 
the Mount of Olives, as Christ did when he was 
met by the triumphal procession which conducted 
him into Jerusalem a few days before his cruci- 
fixion. 

The journeys and voyages of Paul are strictly geo- 
graphical, from the nightly expedition of the horse- 
men who escorted him from Jerusalem to Csesarea, 
to the last stage of his travels from the " Three 
Taverns " to the city of Rome. His travels through 
Asia Minor and Greece could not be more true to 
times, distances, and position of places, if they were 
made by mathematical calculation. In a true nar- 
rative, such things are accurate without labor, but 
in a fictitious one, no care can avoid errors and im- 
probability. 

I next proceed to speak of the persons introduced 
as the actors who were concerned in the great enter- 
prise of introducing and establishing Christianity in 



44 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

the world. I begin with Paul, and I know of no 
person in all antiquity whose real existence is more 
certain. His Epistles bear upon the face of them 
the strongest marks of reality. These marks are 
perhaps generally indefinable, but no less convincing, 
and they leave no doubt that such a man as Paul 
lived and acted as is there related, and that his whole 
course of life was based on his belief in the divine 
mission and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. This 
is evident without any critical examination. But a 
sagacious observer and acute reasoner, Archdeacon 
Paley, has placed the genuineness and authenticity 
of the Epistles of Paul entirely beyond question, by 
comparing them with each other, and with the 
sketches of Paul's history which are given by Luke 
in the Acts of the Apostles. There are so many 
cases of minute and evidently undesigned coin- 
cidence between the two, that they do not leave a 
shadow of a doubt that the enterprising and inde- 
fatigable missionary of the one was the writer of the 
other. In the narrative and the Epistles there are 
introduced two Roman governors, Felix and Festus, 
together with Agrippa and Berenice, grandchildren 
of Herod the Great, and two Roman Emperors who 
are known to us in profane history, Claudius and 
Nero, and in accordance with it. 

Next in distinctness to Paul comes Peter. We 
may say of him, too, that his character and history 
are singularly real. We have seen many ourselves 
of the same type of temperament and disposition. 
Ardent, impulsive, affectionate, but wanting in re- 
flection, steadiness, and perseverance. He rushes 
headlong into enterprise and danger, but has not 



REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 45 

the coolness and firmness which are necessary to bear 
himself well and wisely when overtaken by peril or 
temptation. But if he sometimes does wrong, he 
never sins by premeditation, and he is ever ready to 
acknowledge and lament his aberrations. 

Next among the Apostolic group comes John, the 
deepest and most powerful character of them all, and 
most nearly resembling the Saviour whom he loved. 
Modest, retiring, contemplative, he makes us aware, 
though we do not see him often, that there is in 
him vast reach of mind and force of character. 

We now turn from the disciples to the Master, 
and we say, that, transcendent as was his character, 
there is nothing in all history more real. No sus- 
picion ever crosses the mind that it is fictitious. 
Fictitious characters are usually mere imitations of 
something in real life. They are at most a combi- 
nation of qualities already exhibited in different in- 
dividuals. But the character of Christ is wholly 
original. It has no model in any person that ever 
existed, nor can it be traced in any number of the 
human race. The moral perfections of his character 
could not have been created by any unassisted im- 
agination. No such course of action could have 
been invented as is attributed to him, no such dis- 
courses could have been put into his mouth, except 
by a wisdom as unequalled as his own. No human 
genius could create an imaginary being like Christ, 
and place him in the elevated position of the Light of 
the world, the Lawgiver of the nations, the Redeemer 
of the soul and spiritual Saviour of mankind, and 
carry him through a ministry of three years, in which 
he should be continually placed in the most trying 



46 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

and difficult circumstances, and make him act and 
speak in character without a failure, and everywhere 
with triumphant wisdom and consistency. To im- 
agine such a life as Christ's, would be almost as 
great a miracle as to live it. And this miracle must 
have been performed by no less than four different 
writers. And then the miracle is multiplied four- 
fold, with this additional improbability, that four 
writers should have happened to invent precisely the 
same character. 

Besides, the human mind, by a law of its nature, 
finds itself compelled rationally to account for every 
phenomenon which is presented to it. An effect must 
have a cause, adequate to its production. They who 
saw, this morning, the day spread itself over the 
earth, knew that it was caused by the rising of the 
sun, because it was dark before, but it has been light 
ever since. Such an event was the advent of Christ. 
His birth spontaneously bec'ame the greatest epoch 
of the ages. From it the centuries preceding are 
compelled to reckon backward, from it the ages 
since are made to reckon downward. It is incon- 
ceivable that a fictitious being, an imaginary creation 
of the human brain, could produce such a revolution 
in human affairs. The broad, long shadow of the 
mountain demonstrates its vastness. We hear at a 
distance the roar of the ocean, and we are filled with 
astonishment and awe. We arrive at its shore, and 
the mystery is all explained. Its mighty bulk, its 
tall, tumbling waves, as they thunder upon the cliff 
or break upon the beach, reveal to us the cause why 
the atmosphere is jarred, and the earth is shaken by 
the power of the ocean storm. So we are disposed 



REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 47 

to wonder at the great changes produced by Chris- 
tianity in the world. Nations which were Pagan 
became the worshippers of the one true God. Tribes 
which were savage became civilized. Religious 
rites which were absurd or obscene were abandoned. 
Amusements which were bloody, cruel, and indecent 
were renounced. The frequency and the atrocity of 
wars were mitigated. A gentleness and humanity 
spread themselves over all the relations of life, which 
poets had not imagined, and charitable institutions 
sprang up, of which heathen philanthropy had 
formed not the most distant conception. "Whence 
did all these things come ? Open the New Testa- 
ment and the mystery is revealed. Contemplate the 
character, the doctrines, and the credentials of Jesus, 
and you discover at a glance the adequate cause of 
this mighty transformation. Look on Christ, the 
spotless and undefiled. Behold the moral miracle of 
one in human form treading all the paths of duty, 
amidst trial and temptation before which every other 
one of the millions of our race has fallen, yet without 
sin. Hear him speak as never man spake, promul- 
gating a doctrine which surpasses in wisdom all 
that sages have ever uttered, and thus develop a re- 
ligion which contradicts no law of human nature, 
lays a solid basis for society, and corrects, so far as 
they can be corrected, all the disorders to which hu- 
manity is subjected. See him authenticate his mis- 
sion from God by healing the sick, giving sight to 
the blind, stilling the tempest, and raising the dead, 
and, more than all, returning to life from the rocky 
caverns of the guarded sepulchre, and conversing 
forty days with his former friends and disciples, and 



48 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

you encounter a cause sufficiently powerful to account 
for the mighty impulse which was given to the hu- 
man race about the period of the Christian era. We 
come to the stone which was cut out of the moun- 
tain without hands, which has ever since been filling 
the earth. No mere phantom of the human imagi- 
nation could have done this. Nothing but a solid 
reality could have done it. Nothing short of just 
such a being as Christ could have done it. " The 
stone which the builders rejected, the same has be- 
come the head of the corner. This is the Lord's 
doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." 

The narrative of the Evangelists has been read 
with immediate and spontaneous belief in all ages, 
on account of its consistency. I mean by consist- 
ency, its correspondence with what we know of hu- 
man nature, and what we know of the persons with 
whom Christ was brought in contact. Not only was 
the character of Christ to be invented and sustained, 
but the characters of all those with whom he had 
intercourse. Not only was he to speak and act in 
correspondence with his high claim as the Light of 
the world, the Saviour of mankind, the Resurrection 
and the Life ; but those with whom he associated, 
his friends and his enemies, his family and his disci- 
ples, must bear themselves in such a manner as 
to correspond with their enmity or affection, their 
hopes, fears, prejudices, and prepossessions. This is 
done with such perfect success, that the thought 
never crosses our minds of fiction or exaggeration. 

In the Gospel of John we are presented with va- 
rious persons, and groups of persons, in whose pres- 
ence Christ is reported to have wrought miracles ; 



REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 49 

and then the conversations are detailed which en- 
sued. I venture to assert, that there are not more 
lifelike pictures in the whole compass of literature. 

I begin with the nocturnal interview with Nicode- 
mus. Who does not see the wary old senator en- 
countering the youthful Saviour, the one all caution 
and prudence, yet on the whole disposed to be fair- 
minded and conscientious ? The best part of him 
spoke out in the candid confession : " Rabbi, we 
know thou art a teacher come from God ; for no man 
can do these miracles that thou doest,e xcept God 
be with him." The worst part appeared in the fact 
of his coming to Jesus by night, for fear of open dis- 
grace, since he held a high office in the national 
council. What more natural than that a candid 
mind, unsupported by decisive character and a cour- 
ageous heart, should thus have attempted to make 
a compromise between his duty and his interest ? 
What more natural than that there should have been 
many among the higher classes precisely in that 
predicament, — almost persuaded to be Christians, 
but wanting the magnanimity to avow themselves ? 
What could be more appropriate than the language 
of Christ upon this occasion ? It was addressed to a 
man of high culture, on a vital, and at the same time 
delicate, subject. The language is sublimely figura- 
tive, yet faithfully true. It mingles in due measure in- 
struction with reproof. It is searching, yet respectful, 
calculated to impress and overawe a mind prepared 
by a refined culture to appreciate it. No human 
being ever read this relation without the strongest 
impression of truth and reality. 

The woman of Samaria! Who that has read the 
5 



50 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

story has ever failed to believe that there was such 
a person, and that she spoke and acted as the Evan- 
gelist describes ? How natural, under the circum- 
stances, her wonder that there could be a Jew so 
liberal and generous as even to speak to a Samari- 
tan, and she a woman ! A circumstance is thrown 
in which heightens the credibility, because it adds to 
the naturalness of the scene, — the woman left her 
water-pot, and hasted away to the city, and told the 
people, with the natural exaggeration of astonish- 
ment, " He told me all things that ever I did." How 
perfectly in keeping the surprise of his disciples 
to find him talking with a Samaritan woman, and 
how expressive of the awful distance which the ex- 
alted character of Christ had put between him and 
his disciples, that they do not dare to express their 
wonder by uttering a word ! The Gospel has every 
appearance of having been written before the de- 
struction of Jerusalem. What forger of fictions would 
have dared, if he had had the genius to do it, to risk 
his character and credit by uttering the sublime pre- 
diction : " Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, 
when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at 
Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour 
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers 
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for 
the Father seeketh such to worship him." 

The only other narrative of the Evangelist, which 
I shall have space to notice, is that of the raising of 
Lazarus. As this is the most stupendous miracle of 
Christ, so the scenes and conversations which led 
to it, accompanied, and followed it, are given with 
the greatest minuteness and particularity ; and it is 



REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 51 

not too much to say, that they produce the deepest 
impressions of truth, — the news of the sickness of 
the distant friend, the gloom which overshadowed 
the house of mourning, the sorrow of the sisters, ex- 
pressing itself in different ways, appropriate to the 
character of each, the approach to the grave, the 
paroxysm of grief which the sight of the spot occa- 
sions, the groans and the weeping of Jesus himself, 
the words by which the slumbers of the dead were 
broken, the wrappings with which the buried man 
came forth, the very prayer which Jesus uttered be- 
fore he ventured to pronounce the most thrilling 
command that was ever uttered by man, " Lazarus, 
come forth ! " — all these things bespeak the accuracy 
of an eyewitness, and, although connected with an 
interruption of the ordinary course of nature, produce 
upon us the strongest impression of truth and 
reality. 

I might go on to point out the marks of truth and 
reality which occur in the minute details of circum- 
stances attending the resurrection of Jesus, — the 
particulars related by John as an eyewitness; the 
going with Peter to the sepulchre ; the fact that they 
both went into it, and had the most ample means of 
ascertaining that the body of Jesus was not there ; 
the interview in the upper chamber and at the sea- 
side. 

But I forbear, and merely observe, in conclusion, 
that these things bring us to the margin of the su- 
pernatural, and we step over it into the miraculous 
without any severe shock to our faith. So inter- 
woven and intermixed are the supernatural events 
with those within the ordinary laws of nature, that 



52 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

we find it impossible to separate them, and we are 
brought to debate the last question which embar- 
rasses the full exercise of unlimited faith, the reason- 
ableness of this especial providence by which Chris- 
tianity has been introduced into the world. We are 
naturally and justly cautious in the reception of the 
supernatural. Under ordinary circumstances, it is 
incredible. The reasons why God established and 
upholds a fixed order of nature are obvious and co- 
gent. There must be a sufficient ground of expec- 
tation for the future, and of belief for the distant and 
the past, or the mind, being unable to discriminate 
between the probable and the improbable, would fall 
a prey to superstition, or, being unable to count on a 
fixed order of nature, would sink into utter imbe- 
cility. But the moral dignity and spotless integrity 
of Jesus exempt him from all suspicion of having 
deceived the world, and his unapproachable wisdom 
lifts him above all liability to the delusions of enthu- 
siasm. The objects of his religion, the spiritual 
enlightenment and salvation of the world, we pro- 
nounce to be worthy the special interposition of the 
God of nature and the Father of mankind. The 
time and the place at which he appeared seem op- 
portune for the dissemination of a positive doctrine 
and a permanent form of administration over the 
world. And the history of the world from that time 
to this has borne witness, that Christianity, what- 
ever may have been its origin, has been the greatest 
boon that Providence ever conferred on man. 



DISCOURSE IV. 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 

ALL THINGS ARE DELIVERED UNTO ME OF MY FATHER : AND 
NO MAN KNOWETH THE SON BUT THE FATHER; NEITHER 
KNOWETH ANY MAN THE FATHER, SAVE THE SON, AND HE 
TO WHOMSOEVER THE SON WILL REVEAL HIM. — Matthew 

xi. 27. 

The life, the words, and actions of Jesus being 
admitted as historical facts, they reveal and make 
certain another historical fact, which is situated 
near the very centre of the subject concerning 
which we are treating, the consciousness of Jesus 
himself of what he was. He must have known who 
and what he was himself, whether he had or had 
not supernatural communication with God, the 
power of working miracles, and divine authority to 
establish a new religion in the world, to proclaim its 
laws and appoint its ritual. Is there evidence that 
there was such a consciousness in him ? 

In every intelligent being there is such a thing as 
a consciousness. The thing which is signified by 
this word is so simple, that it cannot be defined or 
made more clear by the use of any other word. Other 
terms may illustrate it, but they cannot make it more 
5* 



54 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

plain. We may say, that it is the continued and 
certain knowledge that we, each one of us, have, that 
he is one individual being, and not two or three 
beings, — that he is the same being to-day that he 
was yesterday, and last year; the conviction that 
we have certain powers of thought and will, — that 
we sustain certain relations of brother, sister, son, 
daughter, father, — certain offices of master, servant, 
magistrate, teacher, — have the power to labor, suffer, 
and enjoy. Concerning these things, while the mind 
is sane, there can be no mistake. 

Every human being has this consciousness. He not 
only has it, but it becomes the basis of all his conduct. 
The father daily exercises the authority which he is 
conscious of rightfully possessing over his children. 
The magistrate daily goes forth and takes his seat 
on the bench of justice or in the chair of state. Were 
one to take that seat who had not been appointed 
to it, he could not act his part. He could not sus- 
tain himself for any length of time. He would be 
confused and discomfited, because there would be a 
continual contradiction between his position and his 
consciousness. The consciousness that he was acting 
a part would throw him into utter confusion. Or if 
he preserved his. gravity and persevered in his pre- 
tensions, it would be certain that he was insane, that 
his consciousness, or rather his mind, had become 
diseased. 

So, moreover, we cannot be long with any person, 
without becoming aware of his consciousness, what 
he conceives himself to be. It is asserted or implied 
in every word, in every act, in every look. We need 
only to listen for a short time to the conversation of 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 55 

an utter stranger, to learn who he is, where he has 
lived, what relations in life he has sustained. Of 
these things we do not conceive it possible for him to 
have a false impression. 

The identity of another is marked by possession 
of a certain species of knowledge. There have been 
travellers who have visited regions unknown to any 
other individual of the community to which they 
belong. This knowledge distinguishes them from 
every other, and enables them to speak with authority 
on subjects upon which all others are silent. An- 
other has pursued a science far beyond his associates. 
He can converse with knowledge and certainty on 
points on which they are in the dark. Individuals 
of distinguished attainments have been recognized in 
public conveyances by the fact that they displayed 
knowledge of certain subjects wholly beyond the 
measure of ordinary men, and known to be possessed 
by them alone. 

It is the purpose of this discourse to apply these 
principles to Jesus Christ. What consciousness ex- 
hibited itself in his thoughts, words, and actions, and 
in the position he assumed in relation to God and to 
mankind ? 

In the first place, negatively, did he anywhere 
exhibit the consciousness that he was God ? It is 
maintained that he was both God and man. If he 
was God, he must have been conscious that he was 
God. Nothing can be more absurd than to assert 
that he was God, and was not conscious that he 
was God. If he was ever conscious that he was 
God, he must at all times have been conscious that 
he was God; for God is an unchangeable being, and 



56 



HISTORICAL FACTS. 



must be always conscious that he is the same. He 
could not have been conscious that he was God at 
one time, and was not God at another time. Con- 
sciousness is a thing which cannot be shifted from 
one being to another. Identity of being is identity 
of consciousness. It is a contradiction in terms to 
assert that one being can be conscious of being two. 
If Christ had had the consciousness that he was 
God, the first duty he would have taught his disci- 
ples would have been that of worshipping him. If 
he had had this consciousness that he was the Sov- 
ereign of the universe, and the Creator of all things, 
could he have concealed this consciousness ? or if he 
did, did he not live and act under a disguise ? 

And then he did things which were wholly incon- 
sistent with the consciousness that he was God. He 
prayed, and often. He could not have prayed, if he 
were conscious that he was God. It is no cure for 
this difficulty to say, that he had two natures, and 
prayed in his human nature. His consciousness must 
have pervaded both natures, and could not have been 
absent from either of them for a single moment. If 
it could be withdrawn from either nature, that nature 
did not make a part of his essential and permanent 
being. He denied that he possessed omniscience. " Of 
that day and hour knoweth not the Son, but the Fa- 
ther only." This he could not have done, if he had 
been conscious that he was God. The words of every 
being are a revelation of his consciousness. When 
God speaks, it is with the consciousness that he is 
God, and it is generally to claim or declare some 
divine attribute. As in the annunciation of the 
Decalogue, he says, " I am the Lord thy God : thou 
shalt have no other gods before me." 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 57 

If he had been really the Almighty God, not only 
ought the consciousness that he was God to have 
incidentally revealed itself, but candor demanded that 
it should be openly and perpetually declared. The 
real ground of his claim to the obedience of man- 
kind would have been that he was God. 

The most direct way to secure that obedience 
would have been to declare that he was God. Jesus, 
when he sat down on the Mount, or in the ship, to 
teach the multitude, should have prefaced his dis- 
course with some such preamble as this : " I am 
Jehovah, your God, who once gave your fathers the 
law from Horeb, amid the flames, the thunder, and 
the smoke. Therefore ye shall keep the command- 
ments which I give you this day." If he was con- 
scious that he was God, it is difficult to conceive 
that he would have adopted any other phraseology. 
It is true, that on one occasion he was accused of 
making himself God by calling himself the Son of 
God. If he had been conscious that he was God, it 
is wholly impossible to suppose that he would have 
shrunk from the charge. Integrity and self-respect 
would have forbidden it. But he made no such 
avowal. He declared that he called himself the Son 
of God, not because he claimed to be God, but be- 
cause God "had sanctified and sent him into the 
world." 

In the second place, negatively, does he manifest 
the consciousness that he is a mere man ? By a 
mere man, I mean one without supernatural endow- 
ments, and without extraordinary relations to God 
and the human race. I answer emphatically, No. 
From his baptism to his crucifixion there was some- 



58 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

thing in his whole bearing which could spring from' 
nothing but conscious elevation above the level of 
unaided, uninspired humanity. 

There is no law more universal, than that the 
demeanor of men shall adjust itself to their position. 
It is instinctive and spontaneous. There is a uni- 
versal sense of propriety, which dictates and de- 
mands it. 

In those countries where the supreme power is he- 
reditary, or descends to collateral branches of a royal 
or imperial family, there are not seldom elevations 
from a private station to supreme dignity and sover- 
eign authority. The transfer is scarcely made before 
its consequences are visible. An entire change is wit- 
nessed in the deportment of the new occupant of the 
throne. A new consciousness enters into him, and 
pervades all his thoughts, words, and actions. There 
is a new dignity, a new sense of authority, a spon- 
taneous assumption of superiority, a serene magna- 
nimity, which is undisturbed by the ordinary occur- 
rences of life. 

This conscious dignity of position, as it seems to 
me, shone out in the whole demeanor of Jesus, after 
his inauguration by John the Baptist and the descent 
of the Holy Ghost. During the former part of his 
life, he had occupied an humble sphere in the world. 
The reputed son of a carpenter, he had lived in an 
obscure village. But when he returned from the 
Jordan "in the power of the Spirit," he was still just 
as humble in external appearance, but a spontaneous 
dignity rose up in him, un approached by any one 
who ever wore the vestments of mortality. Time, as 
it passed on, demonstrated that it was not assumed. 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 59 

It was the natural expression of the consciousness of 
the position he held in the Divine administration of 
the world, as the promised Messiah who had a place 
in the Divine counsels from the foundation of the 
world, the great Shepherd, who was to gather into 
one fold all the scattered tribes of the human race. 

This conscious dignity never forsook him. It made 
a part of him. It impressed his disciples with an 
overpowering reverence. It filled the surrounding 
multitudes with awe. We perceive it in every page 
of the Gospels, and it strikes us as exhibiting a man- 
ifest congruity. It is a strong corroboration of our 
faith. It displays an exact coincidence between 
internal consciousness and outward profession. It 
makes the spontaneous demeanor and public claim 
of Jesus harmonious, and each lends propriety to 
the other. 

In the third place, then, positively, he does manifest 
the consciousness of immediate supernatural commu~ 
nication with God. 

He speaks of himself as having a knoivledge of 
God and his counsels, which no one else possessed. 
To Nicodemus he said, " Verily, verily, I say unto 
thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we 
have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have 
told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall 
ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things. And no 
man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came 
down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is 
in heaven." Here he is speaking expressly concern- 
ing the nature of the Christian religion, that it was 
to be spiritual, and not national and external. Not 
only did he know it, he affirms, supernaturally, but 



60 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

he was the only depositary at that moment of this 
knowledge. Nearly the same sense is conveyed in 
the passage from which the text is taken. It ex- 
presses the fulness of knowledge of divine things 
which was to be possessed under the new dispensa- 
tion, so superior to that possessed by the wisest of 
men under the Mosaic economy. " At that time 
Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, 
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid 
these things from the. wise and prudent, and hast 
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so 
it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered 
unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the 
Son but the Father ; neither knoweth any man the 
Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the 
Son will reveal him." 

Many persons suppose that there is a great mys- 
tery here ; that Christ is speaking of his metaphysical 
nature as known only to God, and so it must be the 
metaphysical nature of God which is known to 
Christ alone. But the connection does not point to 
such a sense. Christ's metaphysical nature could not 
have been made known by revelation to himself. 
It must have been made known to him by sponta- 
neous, original consciousness. One of the objects of 
spontaneous consciousness is to inform us what we 
are, and what we have done, and what we have 
been doing ever since we have had a being. " Who 
the Messiah is," must refer, then, to the purposes of 
his mission and the nature of his religion. These 
were the things which had been kept concealed from 
the wise and prudent, but were now revealed unto 
babes, — to men of ordinary attainments and under- 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 61 

standing. All these tilings were delivered unto him 
by his Heavenly Father. 

This point of the consciousness of supernatural 
knowledge receives further illustration from Christ's 
last prayer with his disciples. This was one of the 
most solemn acts of his life. In addressing the om- 
niscient God, his inmost consciousness must of course 
come out. " Father," said he, " the hour is come : 
glorify thy Son, that thy Son may also glorify thee : 
as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he 
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast 
given him. And this is life eternal, that they might 
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom 
thou hast sent." 

More solemn language than this cannot be found. 
It was uttered in the presence of God, and to God, 
and at the approach of death. It must therefore be 
considered as expressing the inmost consciousness 
of his soul. Its testimony is both negative and posi- 
tive. He could not have been conscious that he 
was God, as he calls the Being whom he addressed 
as the only true God ; or rather, he must have been 
conscious that he was not God. The testimony is 
positive, that he felt himself to have received a divine 
mission : u And Jesus Christ, ivhom thou hast senV 
The object of that mission was revelation, the commu- 
nication of a knowledge which he had received from 
God. " That they might know thee, the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." It 
was not the metaphysical nature of God that he 
was to make known, for that is revealed through 
his works, and is open to the investigations of phi- 
losophy, but his moral nature, his paternal character, 
6 



62 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

and his purposes concerning man. Neither was it 
the metaphysical nature of Christ that he dwelt upon 
in his teaching. Concerning this he is profoundly 
silent. It is the purposes of his mission, the nature 
of his kingdom, the essential character of his religion, 
upon which he discourses. This is further evident 
from the nature of the faith they were to cherish in 
him. It was not that by nature he was this or that, 
but that his doctrines were an express revelation 
from God. " I have glorified thee on the earth ; 1 have 

finished the work which thou gavest me to do 

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou 

hast given me Now they have known that 

whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I 
have given them the words which thou gavest me; and 
they have received them, and have known surely 
that I came out from thee, and they have believed 
that thou didst send me" " Sanctify them through 
thy truth : thy word is truth." 

Now I know of no words in which Christ could 
have expressed more fully, calmly, rationally, and 
explicitly, the objects of his mission and ministry on 
earth. There is not the least shadow of mysticism 
or enthusiasm in this admirable prayer. The im- 
pression is, in the first place, full and perfect on the 
mind of the reader, that no human being that ever 
lived could have fo?ged such a prayer and put it into 
Christ's mouth. In the second place, it all evidently 
flows out of a deep and solemn consciousness of a 
mission from God, and of the reception of a super- 
natural revelation from him. Concerning this mission 
and this revelation, as it was a matter of conscious- 
ness, supposing his mind to be rightly constituted 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 63 

and in a healthy state, there could have been no 
mistake. A supernatural connection with God is 
asserted over and over again. On one occasion his 
disciples demand, as a full and decisive proof of 
his divine commission, that he should show them the 
Father, not, as some might be led to think, as a mat- 
ter of childish curiosity, but of certain assurance that 
they were following one clothed with divine author- 
ity. " Show us," said they, " the Father, and it suffi- 
ceth us." It sufficeth not our curiosity, but our faith. 
Show us some outward manifestation of God, or 
of God's presence, such as Moses showed the Israel- 
ites at Mount Sinai, and we shall no longer doubt 
whether the Master we follow be sent of God. Jesus 
answers, that in himself his disciples have had a 
clear manifestation of God. " Hast thou been so 
long time with me, and hast thou not known me, 
Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; 
and how sayest thou, then, Show us the Father?" 
He then goes on to explain himself, — that his doc- 
trines and his miracles are from God, and are of such 
a nature as to convince the hearer and the beholder 
that he could not have produced them unless God 
were with him and in him. Belief in Christ was to 
be grounded on his doctrines and on his miracles, 
and not, as in the Mosaic religion, on any external 
manifestation of God's presence. " Believest thou 
not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? " 
Of that indwelling of the Father he could only tes- 
tify. He could not prove it, because it was a matter 
of consciousness. The proof he offered to others 
was his doctrines and his miracles, of which every 
one was a competent judge. Could such words be 



64 — HISTORICAL FACTS. 

uttered, could such miracles be wrought, by one who 
had no miraculous connection with God ? li The 
words that I speak unto you, I speak not of my- 
self; but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth 
the works. Believe me, that I am in the Father, and 
the Father in me ; or else believe me for the very 
works' sake." I, for one, cannot conceive of more 
calm, clear, and definite language, in which Christ's 
connection with God could have been expressed. 

There seems to me to be in the whole demeanor 
and language of Jesus a mingled tone of sadness 
and sublimity, which corresponds to the conscious- 
ness we must suppose him to have possessed of his 
high destiny and relations, in contrast with that 
tragical end which awaited his ministry on earth. 

His peculiar relations to God and to mankind, as 
the Mediator between God and man, the Founder 
of a universal religion, the First that was to rise from 
the dead, involving the bloody and cruel death he 
was to suffer, which was fully foreseen in its minut- 
est circumstances, — these things set him apart as 
inaccessible to all human sympathy, and gave his 
whole character an unearthly, anomalous, unap- 
proachable cast, which has contributed much to that 
cloud of mysticism the Church has thrown around 
the person of Christ. This consciousness marked his 
individuality, and it flowed out in his language and 
bearing everywhere. We see it in his interview 
with Nicodemus, and in comparative youth it baffles 
and overpowers the grave, venerable, and wordly- 
wise senator of Jerusalem. We see it in his con- 
versation with the woman of Samaria, in which he 
speaks of supplanting Judaism and establishing a 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 65 

spiritual and universal religion, as a common and 
familiar thought. 

There is an instance more striking, in which this 
consciousness of a world-wide mission flowed out 
almost in the form of a soliloquy. It was when 
certain Greeks desired to be introduced to him. We 
immediately imagine the association of ideas by 
which his subsequent language was suggested. It 
would naturally lead him to think of the universality 
of his mission, not yet fully disclosed to the world, 
but as certain to him as his own existence. These 
Greeks were, as it were, the first-fruits of an abun- 
dant harvest, the first drops of a copious shower. 

But he could become a universal Messiah only by 
dying. As long as he lived, the Jews, even those 
who believed on him, would appropriate him to 
themselves, and imagine that he came to make Ju- 
daism universal. His death was to destroy that 
hope, and reveal the fact, that his kingdom was 
spiritual, and destined to supersede, and not to per- 
petuate, Judaism. He must die to the Jews, in order 
to extend his religion to the Gentiles. 

" And there were certain Greeks among them that 
came up to worship at the feast. The same came 
therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Gali- 
lee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Je- 
sus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew ; and again, 
Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered 
them, saying, Except a corn of wheat fall into the 
ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it 
bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life 
shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world 
shall keep it unto life eternal." 
6* 



66 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

That this consciousness of a divine mission, and 
of supernatural communication with God, was in 
him, and in a manner made a part of his being, we 
have not only the testimony of his express declara- 
tion, but the constant and consistent testimony of 
his whole conduct, after the commencement of his 
public ministry. He assumed at once, humble as he 
was in his outward appearance, to be the Founder of 
a new religion, commensurate with the human race, 
and as lasting as time. He laid down its essential 
doctrines, he showed wherein it was coincident with 
Judaism, which was the existing religion, and in 
what it differed. He declared what part of the old 
religion was retained, and what part was done away. 
He appointed the ritual of the new religion, and 
commenced its celebration. He appointed twelve 
Apostles to be the constant attendants of his minis- 
try, to receive his doctrines, to imbibe his spirit and 
be the witnesses of his life and actions, and after his 
resurrection he commissioned them to spread his 
religion over the world. " Go," said he, " teach all 
nations, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have 
commanded you." On this clear, calm, consistent, 
and unchanging consciousness of Jesus, revealed 
through all his words and actions, has been mainly 
based the faith of the Christian world in all ages. 
They have regarded him as the faithful and true wit- 
ness, and, dying as he did in testimony to this claim, 
his death has been understood as a martyrdom to 
this great fact. His mission was sealed by his 
blood. 

By placing this ground of faith at the head, I 
would not be understood to exclude or disparage 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 67 

other grounds of belief. Christ himself did not. He 
gave his testimony, but he declared that his testi- 
mony was corroborated by his supernatural words 
and works. " It is written in your law," said he, 
"that the testimony of two men is true. I am one 
that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent 
me beareth witness of me." 

These different grounds of evidence remain to the 
present day, not unchanged in relative strength, but 
in substance essentially the same. The miracles 
were conclusive to them who saw them, but they 
come to us at second hand. As they are recorded 
in the Gospels by the Evangelists, they are the testi- 
mony of a testimony. The miraculousness of the 
words of Christ consists in their essential wisdom 
and spirituality. This is not only as manifest to 
our minds as to those who first listened to them, but 
more so. The mind of the world has made vast 
progress, intellectually, since that time. Science and 
experience have expanded it in every direction. 
Christianity has developed the moral and spiritual 
capacities of men, as they were never developed 
before. Neither man's intellectual nor spiritual ad- 
vancement has gone beyond Christianity. They are 
still far behind it. But every step of their progress 
makes men more sensible how great and wise a thing 
Christianity is, how sublimely true are the words of 
Jesus, how necessary it is to suppose them to have 
come directly from the wisdom of the Omniscient 
Mind. 



DISCOURSE V 



THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 

THEN SPAKE JESUS AGAIN UNTO THEM, SAYING, I AM THE 
LIGHT OF THE WORLD : HE THAT FOLLOWETH ME SHALL 
NOT WALK IN DARKNESS, BUT SHALL HAVE THE LIGHT OF 

life. — Johnviii. 12. 

If we may believe the history of the New Testa- 
ment, Jesus was miraculously sent by God to set up 
a new religion upon the earth, which was to embrace 
the whole world and continue to the end of time. 
But in order to do this, it was necessary that he 
should possess certain endowments. He must pos- 
sess superhuman knowledge^ and must know that he 
possessed it, in order to have confidence in himself 
and in his enterprise. No human wisdom was com- 
petent to frame a religion for the world. Without 
conscious inspiration from above, he could not have 
assumed the position of authority which was neces- 
sary to the character of the promulgator of a new 
religion. The offices of prophet and philosopher 
are totally different. The philosopher promulgates 
truth upon the authority of reason and argumenta- 
tion. He wins others to coincide with him in opinion 



THE CLAIMS -OF CHRIST. 69 

by argument. The prophet promulgates truth on 
the ground of certainty, and of course on the basis 
of an authority which commands, not only assent, 
but obedience. He who is sent by God has a right, 
and feels that he has a right, to command. The phi- 
losopher only persuades, and feels that he has only 
a right to persuade. One establishes a religion, the 
other a philosophical sect. 

It may be objected, that the certainty from which 
Christ spoke was only a higher degree of moral 
conviction, which all men have in a degree. When 
he said, " There is one God," he uttered only the 
conviction which is inspired by the consentaneous 
phenomena of the universe ; and when he said that 
this and that was God's will and law, he only gave 
utterance to the dictates of conscience, that universal 
moral nature which God has given to all men; 
when he said that God would reward the righteous 
and punish the wicked, he only said what ought to 
be, and, if God is just and omnipotent, what will 
be ; and, of course, he only prophesied out of that 
moral and spiritual nature which is common to all 
men. In that case, he really knew no more than any 
one else ; he had merely stronger moral convictions 
than the rest of mankind. 

This ground cannot be taken without questioning 
his veracity and moral integrity. For he claims im- 
mediate, conscious inspiration, direct communication 
with God, and makes it the ground, not only of abso- 
lute certainty, but of just authority over mankind. 

Not only was there necessary to his enterprise 
supernatural knowledge, and the consciousness of it, 
but some supernatural seal from God, confirming and 



70 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

substantiating his assertion. This was indispensable 
for two reasons. It was necessary for the establish- 
ment of his claims to authority over mankind. It 
performed the same office to them that the voice 
from heaven did to his immediate followers : " This is 
my beloved Son : hear ye him" Still more was it 
necessary to his success with the Jews. Without it, 
he could not have made a single convert. No Jew 
would ever have forsaken a religion founded on the 
evidence of miracle, for one sustained merely by phil- 
osophical argument and logical demonstration. 

Accordingly, the Jews make this continual demand 
upon him, throughout his whole ministry. " A mir- 
acle, a miracle ! " say they. " Give us a sign, a sign 
from heaven. We know that God spake unto Mo- 
ses, but as for this fellow, we know not whence he 
is." Moses had shown them signs from heaven, that 
is to say, the giving of the Law was accompanied by 
thunder and smoke, and the sound of a trumpet, from 
the cloud on Sinai. Bread for their sustenance had 
apparently fallen from the celestial regions for forty 
years. A religion thus authenticated could not have 
been superseded by philosophical argument, nor by 
any revelation of spiritual truth, however clear and 
demonstrative, unaccompanied by miraculous testi- 
mony. Accordingly, this was the first instrument of 
his success, before the excellence of his teaching was 
developed. " Before that Philip called thee, when 
thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel 
answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son 
of God, thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered 
and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, Isaiv thee 
under the fig4ree,believestthou? Thou shalt see greater 



THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 71 

things than these. Verily, verily , I say unto you, here- 
after ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God 
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." 

It is an historical fact, then, if the New Testament 
is to be relied on, that Jesus, immediately after his 
baptism, assumed the position of a prophet ; that is, he 
claimed supernatural knowledge, a knowledge com- 
municated to him immediately from God. We have 
seen that he did so in the case of Nathaniel, and the 
fact was recognized by Nathaniel himself. This 
knowledge related to a contemporaneous event. In 
his conversation with Nicodemus, he claimed super- 
natural knowledge of another kind; that the religion 
which God was about to set up was to be a new 
and distinct religion, not a branch or modification of 
Judaism. All must be bom again, the Jew as well 
as the heathen, in order to enter into the kingdom of 
God. This knowledge comes from God. It is not 
an uncertain opinion, it is a certain truth. It is a 
thing to which he testifies as a thing known, not as a 
mere probability, as a thing believed. " Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, we speak that w r e do know, and tes- 
tify that we have seen, and ye receive not our wit- 
ness." This knowledge is confined to himself alone. 
" No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that 
came down from heaven, even the Son of Man 
which is in heaven." Heaven is the habitation of 
God, and as those who know the counsels of kings 
gain access to them by approaching the court where 
they reside, so, by a figure of speech, to know the Di- 
vine counsels is to be in heaven. He goes on to dis- 
close a secret of the Divine purpose, known to none 
at that moment but the Omniscient Mind, the cruci- 



72 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

fixion of the Messiah. "As Moses lifted up the ser- 
pent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man 
be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have eternal life." 

This supernatural knowledge of Jesus was one of 
the main instruments of fixing the faith of his con- 
temporaries. It produced a strong demonstration in 
his favor among the Samaritans. The woman who 
came to the well of Jacob is immediately arrested 
and convinced by it. " Go, call thy husband, and 
come hither. The woman answered and said, I 
have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast 
well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had 
five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not 
thy husband : in that saidst thou truly. The woman 
saith unto him, Sir } I perceive that thou art a prophet" 

That Jesus was conscious of possessing supernatu- 
ral knowledge, communicated to him immediately 
by God, we can have no higher evidence than that 
he recognizes the fact in acts of solemn prayer to 
God. " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and 
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the 
wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto 
babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in 
thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my 
Father : and no man knoweth the Son, but the 
Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father, save 
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal 
him." We cannot conceive of any sincere, not to 
say sane, man, making use of such language as this, 
in solemn prayer to God, without a consciousness of 
supernatural communication from him. To the same 
effect are the words of his last prayer with his disci- 



THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 73 

pies : " For I have given unto them the words which 
thou gavest me ; and they have received them, and 
have known surely that I came out from thee, and 
they have believed that thou didst send me." 

His knowledge of God was not derived from phil- 
osophical speculation, but from immediate inspira- 
tion. That knowledge was to be to his disciples the 
source or cause of eternal life. " As thou hast given 
him power over all flesh, that he should give eter- 
nal life to as many as thou hast given him. And 
this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the 
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast 
sent." 

To the reception or rejection of those doctrines 
which he promulgated on the ground of his super- 
natural knowledge, he attached the most momentous 
consequences. " He that keepeth my word shall 
never see death." " I am the bread which came 
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he 
shall live for ever." Could he have made such claims 
had he not been conscious of communicating to the 
world doctrines which he had derived immediately 
from God ? 

Christ claimed the possession of supernatural pow- 
ers, the poiver of working miracles, and alleged them 
as proofs of his mission from God. It is difficult to 
conceive how he could have proceeded on his mis- 
sion with confidence without them. They authen- 
ticated himself to himself. How otherwise could he 
distinguish the suggestions of the Spirit, which was 
given him without measure, from the motions of his 
own mind ? The inward mission must be corroborated 
by outward sign, before he could assume the respon- 
7 



74 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

sible position of the founder of a new divine dispen- 
sation to mankind. The inauguration in the Jordan 
seems to be the first event of that kind which fixed 
the conviction in his own mind, that he was that 
great prophet which was to come into the world. 
For immediately afterward new temptations seem 
to be suggested, natural to the consciousness of 
standing in a new position, and receiving new and 
untried powers. Human passions and appetites 
were presented with new instruments, and tempted 
with new opportunities. " If thou be the Son of 
God" if thou art the Messiah, and possessest mi- 
raculous powers, use them for the supply of thy 
wants and the gratification of thine appetites, 
" command these stones to be made bread." If 
thou possessest miraculous powers, use them for the 
gratification of ambition : become a temporal sover- 
eign, and reign over all the kingdoms of the earth. 
Or of thy vanity, and cast thyself from the pin- 
nacle of the temple, in the presence of a multitude, 
to excite their admiration and astonishment. 

But for none of these purposes did he use them, 
or attempt to use them. He made them always the 
seals of his mission. Before the raising of Lazarus, 
the most stupendous of all his miracles, he prayed 
aloud : " Father, I thank thee, that thou hast heard 
me. And I know that thou hearest me always ; but 
because of the people which stand by I said it, that 
they may believe that thou didst send me." This sin- 
gle instance is a key to the bearing of all his miracles, 
and the use which he made of them to authenticate 
his mission. 

On another occasion he said : " But I have greater 



THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 75 

witness than that of John, for the works which the 
Father hath given me to finish, the same works that 
I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent 
me." On another occasion he said : " It is written 
in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. 
I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father 
that sent me beareth witness of me." Again : " The 
works that I do in my Father's name, they bear wit- 
ness of me." Again : " If I do not the works of my 
Father, believe me not, but if I do, though ye believe 
not me, believe the works, that ye may know and be- 
lieve that I am in the Father and the Father in me." 

Such were the frequent, explicit, and unequivocal 
appeals of Jesus to his miracles as the evidence of 
his mission from God. They were made at the 
time, and in the presence of those who were the 
witnesses of them. They were considered by his 
contemporaries, who believed on him, as having that 
bearing. Nicodemus, a Rabbi of ripe judgment, of 
mature age and high intellectual culture, came to 
him and said : " Rabbi, we know that thou art a 
teacher come from God; for no man can do these mira- 
cles that thou doest, except God be with him." Such 
was the reasoning of the man born blind, whose eyes 
Jesus had opened. " Why, herein is a marvellous 
thing, that ye know not whence he is, and yet he hath 
opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth 
not sinners ; but if any man be a worshipper of God, 
and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world 
began was it not heard that any man opened the 
eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were 
not of God, he could do nothing." 

The force of Christ's miracles was attempted to be 



76 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

evaded by his enemies, on the ground that they were 
testimony to his divine mission, which, if not re- 
butted, left them without excuse in their unbelief. 
" Then was brought unto him one possessed with a 
devil, blind and dumb ; and he healed him, insomuch 
that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. " And 
all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the 
Son of David?" Is not this the Messiah? "But 
when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow 
doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of 
the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said 
unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is 
brought to desolation, and every city or house di- 
vided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan 
cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how 
shall then his kingdom stand ? If I by Beelzebub 
cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them 

out ? But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of 

God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you" 

This testimony of miracles to the mission of Jesus 
is the basis of the whole structure of the Gospel ac- 
cording to John. John states the purpose of his 
Gospel in the following verses : " And many other 
signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, 
which are not written in this book; but these are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God, and that, believing, ye might have 
life through his name." 

The word in this passage rendered " sign" means 
a mark or token, an evidence, a signature, a voucher. 
As applied to the miracles of Christ, it means the 
divine signature to his mission. Accordingly, if we 
carefully examine the structure of the fourth Gospel, 



THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 77 

we shall find that it is a selection of the most remark- 
able of Christ 9 s miracles, those which conveyed the 
strongest proof to the immediate spectators that Jesus 
was the expected Messiah. First, the supernatural 
knowledge he exhibited of the character and history of 
Nathaniel ; then his miraculous penetration into the 
purposes and thoughts of Nicodemus ; then his de- 
tailed development of the condition and previous life 
of the woman of Samaria ; then the feeding of the 
multitude in the desert; then the raising of Lazarus; 
then the cure of the blind man, which was legally in- 
vestigated ; then of the lame man, who had been a 
cripple eight-and-thirty years ; and finally his resur- 
rection and repeated appearances to his disciples, 
and his submitting himself to the test of their senses ; 
— all these constitute a mass of miraculous events, 
which, if admitted as historical facts, leave no doubt 
of the divine mission of Jesus of Nazareth. 

Jesus claimed to possess superhuman ivisdom. There 
is a difference between superhuman wisdom and su- 
pernatural knowledge. The knowledge of future 
events, of the thoughts of others, of things distant 
and unseen, is one thing, and the knowledge of truth, 
of human nature, human relations, duties, and respon- 
sibilities, is another. They do not necessarily involve 
each other. The prophets of old possessed a knowl- 
edge often of the future and unseen, but, with the 
exception of Moses, none of them possessed the wis- 
dom which was necessary to the construction of a 
religion. . That wisdom Jesus possessed, and we 
have the proof of it in his religion itself, which has 
borne the test of time and of human scrutiny for 
more than eighteen hundred years. 
7* 



78 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

This supernatural endowment is less palpable 
than the other, because it lies in the direct line of 
human faculties, while the other does not. It be- 
comes demonstrably miraculous only when so far 
transcending all human attainment as to leave all 
human competition altogether behind. The pow T er 
which made the blind to see, and the lame to walk, 
was a matter of the senses. The wisdom which 
spoke out in the Sermon on the Mount was a matter 
of the judgment, though equally miraculous and 
equally transcending all human unaided faculties 
and endowments. 

This of all the arguments for the divine mission 
of Jesus has been the most convincing to some of 
the greatest minds, and the most gifted of American 
statesmen and jurists has left it inscribed upon his 
tombstone, as we have already said, that this, above 
all others, carried conviction to his mind that Chris- 
tianity was of heavenly origin. 

This wisdom Christ manifested from the com- 
mencement of his ministry. Whenever he opened 
his mouth, it flowed forth as if from an inexhaustible 
fountain. Here Christ comes in contrast with the 
wisest of the heathen philosophers, and he as far 
transcends them all as the meridian sun the twink- 
ling stars of night. The wisest of them uttered a 
few wise sayings among a mass of errors and crudi- 
ties and follies. Every part of Christ's discourses 
surpasses the wisest things that the most eminent of 
them ever uttered. God is revealed and brought 
near, the human heart is searched to its utmost 
recesses, all the relations of life laid open, and the 
duties which grow out of them made clear as the 



THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 79 

light of day, so that no man can resist the conviction 
of duty which they carry home to his conscience. 

Christ not only possessed this superhuman wis- 
dom, this supernatural knowledge of truth, but he 
was conscious of it, and spoke of it as the sceptre by, 
which he was to rule the world. Pilate says to him, 
" Art thou a king, then*? Jesus answered, Thou 
sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, 
and for this cause came I into the world, that I 
should bear witness to the truth. Every one that is 
of the truth heareth my voice." " Heaven and earth 
shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away." 

The authority of which Christ here speaks is not 
external, but internal ; not the authority of outward 
miracle, but of inward conviction ; — the coincidence 
between the outward word and the law written on 
the heart of every human being. The existence of 
that law, of that moral nature which God has given 
us, and the assent which the heart gives to the words 
of Christ, do not at all diminish the miraculousness 
of the words of Christ. Its existence is necessary to 
the religious and responsible nature of man. But 
no unassisted mind has ever given that law a full 
development and perfect expression with the excep- 
tion of Christ, and this has been acknowledged by 
believer and unbeliever from that time to this. This 
was the reason why his hearers confessed that 
" never man spake like this man." It was his confi- 
dence in the perfection and power of this word which 
led Jesus to say : " I am the bread of life, I am the 
living bread which came down from heaven. If any 
man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." " It is 
the Spirit that quickeneth ; the words that I speak 



80 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

unto you, they are spirit and they are UfeP It was 
this confidence which led him to say to the woman 
of Samaria : " Whosoever shall drink of the water 
that I shall give him shall never thirst ; but the 
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well 
of water springing up into everlasting life." 

Conscious of these endowments, and possessing 
these powers, Jesus claimed authority to set up a 
new religion in the world. There was a religion of 
miraculous origin and of divine authority already in 
existence. This, without scruple or hesitation, he 
proceeded to modify, or set aside. " The law and the 
prophets were until John ; since that time the king- 
dom of God is preached, and every man presseth 
into it." " Ye have heard that it hath been said, An 
eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." This is 
expressly the law of Moses. " But /say unto you, 
that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite 
thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." 

He omitted from his religion the ceremonies of the 
law, and gave the reason why he did so, that those 
ceremonies were unsuited to its nature. When he was 
asked why he did not enjoin fasting upon his disciples, 
he answered : " No man putteth a piece of new cloth 
unto an old garment; for that which is put in to fill 
it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made 
worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bot- 
tles ; else the bottles break, and the wine runneth 
out, and the bottles perish : but they put new wine 
in new bottles, and both are preserved." 

He claimed authority to promulgate a new law 
concerning divorce. Moses had permitted it for the 
hardness of the people's hearts, on account of the 



THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 81 

cruelty which a wife might suffer, if she were bound 
indissolubly to a brutal husband. But now that the 
barbarism of that age was past, Christ restricted the 
license of divorce to a single cause. 

Aware that his kingdom was to be spiritual, and 
his dominion that of the truth, he proceeded to or- 
ganize it accordingly. He chose twelve disciples, 
whom he denominated Apostles, to be his constant 
companions, to listen to his discourses, and to be 
transformed into his moral image, that, when he 
should be removed, from the earth, they might take 
up the work where he laid it down, and perpetuate 
his religion to the remotest times. 

In making them his Apostles and ministers, he 
explicitly told them that they had nothing earthly to 
expect from their connection with him, or their labors 
in his cause. " Whosoever cometh after me," said 
he, " let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and 
follow me." " Behold, I send you forth as sheep 
among wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, 
and harmless as doves." " My kingdom is not of 
this world, else would my servants fight." 

Before his ascension, he formally commissioned 
his disciples to spread his religion over the w r orld. 
" Go," said he, " and teach all nations." " Go, 
.preach the Gospel to every creature." He prescribed 
and limited the rites of his new religion, Baptism 
and the Supper. " Baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
" This do," said he of the Supper, " in remembrance 
of me." " Thus," says Paul, " do ye show forth the 
Lord's death until he come." His relation to his 
followers was not to cease when he left the world. 



82 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

His name was to be associated with that of God in 
the form of baptism, and that formula was for ever to 
claim for him the divine authority by which he pro- 
fessed to act while here on earth. 

Thus was the ministry of Christ a perfect whole, 
its plan from the first comprehended and declared, 
its purpose announced, its progress and termination 
foreshown, and the fate and progress of his religion 
in after ages predicted. It is not the shapeless and 
casual production of accident, which unforeseen 
events moulded into form and symmetry, and con- 
curring minds helped to develop. It was perfect 
at first in the mind of its Founder, and went forth, 
not to be the sport of chance, but to shape the course 
of events, and create the world anew. 

Christ claimed to have a connection with his disci- 
pies, which was not to cease when he was removed 
from the earth. Just before his ascension, he prom- 
ised : " Lo, I am with you always, even unto the 
end of the world." The precise sense in which this 
is to be interpreted, perhaps, we do not know, but 
we have very remarkable facts which answer to this 
promise. We have the miraculous events which 
helped the Apostles to establish his religion in the 
earth. We have the frequent personal appearance 
of Christ to Paul, and those supernatural interposi- 
tions which informed the Church that Christianity 
was to be extended to the Gentiles. We have the 
preservation of the Christian Church through ages of 
ignorance, barbarism, and violence, when every other 
institution was wrecked and obliterated from the 
face of the earth. The Church survives, and is more 
powerful, extensive, and vigorous than ever. Such 



THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 83 

a preservation certainly argues an especial and con- 
tinual interposition of Providence. Whether this is 
all that is meant by Christ, we perhaps have no 
means of determining. 

Finally, Jesus claimed a relation to Ms followers 
which was to be renewed in another life. He was to 
recognize them as having been his disciples, in the 
presence of that God who sent him to teach and 
save mankind. " Whosoever shall confess me before 
men, him will I confess also before my Father which 
is in heaven. And whosoever shall deny me before 
men, him will I also deny before my Father which 
is in heaven." He represents himself likewise as 
judging the nations. " When the Son of Man shall 
come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, 
then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and be- 
fore him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall 
separate them one from another, as the shepherd 
divideth the sheep from the goats." 

But the boldness of Oriental figure and of pro- 
phetic representation permits us to interpret all this, 
not of Christ's person, but of his doctrines. " If any 
man hear my words and believe not, I judge him 
not, for I came not to judge the world, but to save 
the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not 
my words, hath one that judgeth him : the word that 
I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last 
day." How far he is personally concerned in this 
may be inferred from his language in relation to 
Moses. " Do not think that I will accuse you to the 
Father. There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, 
in whom ye trust." 

This would indicate, that those who enjoy the light 



84 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

of the Gospel are not to be judged personally by 
Christ, but by the principles of his religion ; or, in 
other words, all men must be judged by the light of 
that religion which they possess ; and nothing can be 
more just, and nothing more true. But, in saying 
this, Christ makes the highest possible claim of di- 
vine authority. He makes his doctrine nothing less 
than the word of God, and the law of the universe. 



DISCOURSE VI. 



CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 

WHO DID NO SIX, NEITHER WAS GUILE FOUND IN HIS MOUTH. 

— 1 Peter ii. 22. 

If we may believe the Apostles and Evangelists, 
there appeared in Judaea, somewhat more than eigh- 
teen centuries ago, a moral prodigy, — a man, or at 
least one in human form, and born of woman, who 
never sinned, who was absolutely perfect, was never 
chargeable with error in judgment or delinquency 
in action, never failed to do anything that he ought 
to do, or did anything that was wrong, was subjected 
to all the trials which are incident to our common 
humanity, besides many and great temptations 
which were peculiar to himself, and yet never did 
amiss, — in the language of the Epistle to the He- 
brews, " was tempted in all points like as we are, 
and yet without sin." 

That such was the fact we have the testimony of 
both friends and enemies. I have just read you that 
of Peter, and he was one of the three most intimate 
and most trusted of his disciples. The charges pre- 
ferred against him at his trial were of the most frivo- 
8 



86 hTstorical facts. 

lous character, and Pilate, his judge, acquitted him 
from all guilt, and said, " I find no fault in him." 

We arrive at the same conclusion concerning him 
in several ways. We have the direct testimony of 
his companions expressly to the point, we have the 
general portrait of his character as exhibited in his 
daily life, in what he did, in what he said, in what 
he forbore to do and say, and in what ■ he suffered. 
When these things are exhibited to us in the sim- 
ple, ingenuous, and artless narrative of the Evange- 
lists, we are able to judge for ourselves, and form 
an idea of his character almost as if we had been 
present. We have another source of evidence in 
the impression he made on those about him. We 
judge of the dimensions and figure of an object, not 
only by looking directly at it, but by observing the 
shadow which it casts. We do not read far in the 
Gospels, before we perceive with what profound ven- 
eration Jesus was regarded by his disciples. This, 
of course, was the natural effect of what he really 
was. Wherever he went, a moral majesty surround- 
ed him, which cast a spell of awe on friend and foe. 
And when we see him presiding at the last supper, 
and in prospect of an immediate and painful death, 
instead of receiving strength and encouragement from 
his disciples, rising above the horrors of that sombre 
hour, and consoling and strengthening his disciples, 
our souls are bowed before his exalted dignity, and 
we acknowledge the towering grandeur of his char- 
acter. That dignity, that calmness, that self-posses- 
sion, were not assumed, strained, or artificial. They 
were in him and of him. They were a part of his 
permanent self, and when the hour of trial came, the 



CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 87 

wrong of his unjust condemnation, his brutal scour- 
ging, and his painful death upon the cross, he went 
through it all with the sublimest fortitude and the 
divinest patience ! He drank the bitter cup without 
a murmuring word. 

The impression left upon the mind, after a perusal 
of the Gospels, is, that Jesus formed a class in the 
moral world by himself. He ascended to a higher 
sphere than had ever been reached by any who 
had appeared in human form. To all others whom 
our hearts reverence, we apply the terms goodness, 
virtue, piety. To Jesus alone beside the Almighty, 
we apply the term holiness. All the saints of old 
were imperfect. We cannot conceive of their enter- 
ing heaven by any other gate than that of repent- 
ance. Jesus could enter it through the golden por- 
tal of innocence. 

But the holiness of God and the holiness of Jesus 
we conceive of as specifically different. The holiness 
of God is necessary, for God cannot be tempted. It 
is inherent, constitutional, immutable. The holiness 
of Christ was voluntary, the result of choice, the ha- 
bitual preference of good, when evil was equally 
presented and freely rejected. The holiness of God 
is the spontaneous action of infinite wisdom and in- 
finite goodness. The holiness of Christ was the 
conformity of his will to the perfect will of God. 
" Let this cup pass from me," said he in an hour of 
human dread of pain and death ; " but not as I will," 
he added, as his soul assumed the attitude of perfect 
allegiance, — " not as I will, but as thou wilV 

Again, the happiness of God is inherent, underived, 
and indestructible, that of Christ was derivative and 



88 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

probationary. " It was for the joy that was set be- 
fore him, that he endured the cross, despising the 
shame." " To him that overcometh will I grant to 
sit with me in my throne, even as i" also overcame, 
and am set down with my Father in his throne." 

I begin with Christ's piety. This was perfect. 
His communion with God was constant, uninter- 
rupted, full, serene, and unclouded. The piety of 
the most perfect of the sons of men has never arrived 
at this height. It is the nature of disobedience and 
distrust, to beget coldness, fear, and estrangement. 
Where is there a human being, who has not at times 
waxed weary in well-doing ? Who is there that has 
not been appalled by the mysteries and perplexities 
of this life, the prosperity of the wicked and the 
affliction of the righteous, and thus, for a season, 
lost faith in God and goodness; and has then 
found the prayer of trust and resignation utterly 
impossible ? or, if he still continues to use the lan- 
guage of devotion, does he not find the words of 
his lips going far before the convictions of his mind 
and the emotions of his heart ? 

Who has not suffered from the estrangement of 
disobedience ? The intercourse of a disobedient child 
with the best of fathers can never be perfectly cordial 
and happy. Nay, the disobedient child shrinks away 
from the presence of his father. The relation be- 
tween them is vitiated and poisoned by conscious 
disobedience. And hence the lamentable failure in 
devotion of the world at large. They do not live up 
to the point of spontaneous and pleasurable communion 
with God. They shrink from prayer as inconsistent 
with the tenor of their daily life. And with the best 



CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 89 

of men, those hours in which full and delightful com- 
munion with God is possible are few and far be- 
tween. With Christ that full communion with God 
was constant, habitual, spontaneous, uninterrupted. 
That estrangement which is the prevailing habit of 
the world was never known to him. 

In this habitual piety, Jesus lived and moved and 
had his being. It constituted as it were an atmos- 
phere about him. His immediate disciples felt its 
influence, and they looked upon him with mingled 
sentiments of reverence and awe. It transfigured 
him before them, so that in a moral sense " his 
countenance shone as the light, and his raiment was 
white and glistering, and they felt it good for them 
to be there." That presence transformed them into 
new men, and breathed into them a new spirit, and 
they went forth and communicated to the world 
what they had received from him, so that the life of 
Christ constituted a new era upon earth ; it was the 
birth of a new spiritual force, which went forth to 
regenerate mankind. 

We cannot read the narratives of the Evangelists 
without being struck with the spotless integrity 
which was everywhere exhibited in the words and 
in the deeds of the Saviour. If anything can be 
learned from the accounts of the temptation, new 
trials and responsibilities awaited him in conse- 
quence of his official character, superadded to those 
which are incident to our common nature. He was 
to be exalted to a dignity unapproached by any of 
our race, to be God's vicegerent on earth, to legislate 
for nations and ages ; he was to command the ele- 
ments, and raise the dead ; and yet he was to assume 
8* 



90 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

none of the outward dignity which would correspond 
to such an exaltation. Such an external pomp and 
magnificence would have removed him from the 
sympathy and affection of those whom he came to 
seek, to elevate, to sanctify and save. It would have 
weakened, instead of aiding, that purely spiritual 
power which he came to exert. His mission was 
not to seek his own glory, but " to bind up the bro- 
ken-hearted, to preach the Gospel to the poor." And 
therefore it was, that, entering fully into the spirit of 
his mission, he everywhere forgot himself; he had 
compassion on the multitude, who wandered like 
sheep without a shepherd ; he taught them till he neg- 
lected to take his necessary food, and his friends in- 
terposed to save him, as they thought, from total self- 
destruction. At the well of Samaria he felt weari- 
ness, and his disciples went away to buy food. But 
when the highways were filled with Samaritans 
hastening to listen to his teaching, the desire of food 
had departed. He has meat to eat that men know 
not of. " His meat is to do the will of his Heavenly 
Father, and to finish his work." This devoted 
humility seems to have been precisely the trait 
which was in the mind of the Apostle when he 
wrote. " Let nothing be done through strife or vain- 
glory ; but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem 
other better than himself. Look not every one on his 
own things, but likewise at the things of others. Let 
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 
who, being in the form of God, thought not a likeness 
to God a thing eagerly to be grasped at, but made 
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the 
form of a servant ; and being in the likeness of man, 



CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 91 

and formed in fashion as a man, he humbled himself 
and became obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross." 

With his disciples, he dealt with the most abso- 
lute candor. He made them fully aware, from the 
first, of the nature and consequences of their con- 
nection with him. He told them that he called 
them to a life of self-sacrifice. " He that will come 
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross 
and follow me." And when two of them came to 
ask to sit on his right hand and his left, he asked 
them, " Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink 
of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am 
baptized with ? " referring, not to the glories they 
must share, but to the sufferings they were to un- 
dergo. Thus was fidelity stamped upon every act 
of his life. 

Next in the order of the virtues to piety and in- 
tegrity comes benevolence. l1 Next to the love of God 
comes the love of our neighbor. Benevolence is 
not sensibility, though it includes it. Sensibility is 
sometimes a passive emotion, and is purely consti- 
tutional; and it not unfrequently relieves distress 
merely to relieve itself. It is apt, too, to be capri- 
cious and transitory. Benevolence is something 
broader and deeper, more systematic and enduring. 
It is intellectual and moral, as well as emotional. 
It is based on principle as well as feeling. It influ- 
ences every act, and controls the whole plan of life. 
It is calm, far-seeing, self-possessed, and untiring. 
It is impossible to define benevolence so well as in 
the words of the Apostle. " It sufTereth long and is 
kind; it envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed 



92 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her 
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoi- 
ceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; bear- 
eth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
endureth all things. Charity never faileth." It is 
scarcely necessary to say, that this is a perfect por- 
trait of but one person who ever bore the form of hu- 
manity, and we can scarcely imagine that the Apos- 
tle had not his Master in his mind when he wrote 
down the characteristics of true benevolence. 

His character shone out in his tenderness towards 
his disciples. They were ignorant, weak, and erring. 
They often tried his patience to the utmost. They 
mistook his purposes, and misunderstood his char- 
acter. But nothing could wean his love. They 
disputed among themselves for rank and prece- 
dence. He rebuked their ambition by setting be- 
fore them a little child. During his agony. in the 
garden, they fell asleep In the extremity of his 
anguish, he uses no bitter reproaches, but only says, 
"What! could ye not watch with me one hour?" 
Peter denied him with an oath. At their first inter- 
view after the resurrection, he dwells not on the 
sad apostasy, but merely says, " Simon, son of 
Jonas, lovest thou me ? " The pains of crucifixion 
kindle no resentment. He curses not his enemies, 
but he fulfils his own precept. He prays for his 
betrayers and murderers, " Father, forgive them, 
they know not what they do ! " 

In expatiating upon the benevolence of Jesus, it 
has been customary, as it seems to me, to overlook 
or underrate another feature of his character no less 
glorious and no less conspicuous, his magnanimity, his 



CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 93 

energy, his strength of will, his decision of character, 
his promptness to encounter violence and face the 
terrors of death. This want of appreciation arises 
from the fact, that active resistance to his persecu- 
tors was forbidden him by the nature of his office. 
He was " not to strive nor cry, nor cause his voice 
to be heard in the streets." He was to conquer the 
world, not by the sword, but by the might of a love 
that was stronger than death. He was to be " a 
martyr to the truth," " to draw all men unto him," 
and reign in all hearts, by enduring the agonies of 
the cross. 

It may be said that there was a moment when 
nature was overborne by the prospect of the unknown 
torments of crucifixion, that "he began to be sore 
amazed and very heavy," and he confessed that " his 
soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." But 
this scene, when rightly viewed, enhances instead of 
diminishing the magnanimity of his final triumph ; 
for it shows that the self-command which he finally 
exhibited was moral, the result of will, and not of a 
nature inaccessible to the dread of pain and death. 
It was spiritual strength victorious over earthly in- 
firmity. And the way in which it was attained is a 
lesson to Christian piety throughout all ages. It 
was by prayer. " And he went a little farther, and 
fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, 
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; never- 
theless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." And he 
rose up from that prayer calm, resolved, self-pos- 
sessed, undaunted ; for when the ruffian band arrived 
he went forth to meet them, and voluntarily surren- 
dered himself into their hands. 



94 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

Such were some, though but few, of the char- 
acteristics of Jesus. The life of such a person itself 
constitutes an era in the history of mankind. It 
was no less wonderful than his miracles and his 
precepts, and made an impression upon the world 
no less profound. It was a corner-stone of the 
Christian Church. It helped to lay a foundation 
broad and large for that august structure, which is 
to gather within its ample walls every nation and 
kindred and tongue and people, and stand for ever. 
It was a tower of strength to the cause of the Apos- 
tles. It struck the world with moral conviction; 
and it lay level with the most ordinary understand- 
ing. Such a character, portrayed as an actual fact, 
as a living reality, rose far above all previous con- 
ceptions of attainable excellence. All the world 
bowed down before it, for every one confessed to 
himself how utterly impotent would have been his 
own mightiest endeavors to approach a perfection 
so spotless. Thus it was that Jesus, exalted to the 
throne of spiritual power, went forth to judge and 
rule the nations. 

The miracles, the precepts, and the character of 
Christ, and the power of them all to regenerate man, 
— these were the four pillars of the Christian cause. 
It was so at first, and it is so now. The character 
of Christ, his sinless perfection, may be said, per- 
haps, to be the most appreciable argument for the 
Christian faith. Its exalted excellence renders it 
wholly impossible to associate with him the idea of 
enthusiasm or imposture. He who was wiser than 
the wisest of our race could not have been deceived 
concerning himself; and he whose whole soul was 



CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 95 

simplicity and candor, could not have deceived us 
when he said, " I am the way, and the truth, and 
the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by 
me." 

Hence the significancy of the Communion. It 
brings up before the Church, in all ages, the person 
and the character of Christ, one of the seals of 
divinity which is stamped upon his mission, mak- 
ing it to Christian faith a living, practical reality. 
Not only his life, but his bloody sacrifice, was a 
seal of its truth, and every Christian who receives 
strength from it to walk in the steps of Jesus feels, 
that to him, at least, his Gospel is the bread of life 
which came down from heaven, for it giveth life to 
the world. 

They will recollect with gratitude that the Sav- 
iour himself was fully aware of the vital power of 
his perfect life when he said, " For their sakes I 
sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified 
through the truth." 



DISCOURSE VII 



FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 

AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, AND DWELT AMONG US, 
AND WE BEHELD HIS GLORY, THE GLORY AS OF AN 
ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON WITH HIS FATHER, FULL OF GRACE 

and truth. — John i. 14. 

A cardinal point in the evidences of Christianity 
is the historical fact of the full, firm, and enduring 
faith of Christ's Apostles. If the New Testament is 
at all to be relied on as history, nothing can be more 
certain than that the disciples, his intimate and 
daily companions, had not been long in his soci- 
ety before they became fully convinced of his divine 
mission and authority, and their respect for him 
deepened into veneration. The perfection of his 
character, the profundity of his wisdom, the impres- 
siveness of his miracles, and the intimacy of his 
apparent communion with God, made them feel in 
his presence a species of awe, which speaks out at 
every turn. It increased during his ministry, and 
was most distinctly manifested at the last supper. 
It received only a partial and temporary shock at 
his crucifixion, and broke forth anew, and rose to a 
higher elevation, after his resurrection and ascension. 



FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 97 

Not only so, we see this faith manifested by the 
different Apostles in a different manner, according 
to the temperament, natural endowment, and cir- 
cumstances of each. Nathaniel, at the commence- 
ment of Christ's ministry, — a plain, unsophisticated 
Israelite, who expected the Messiah simply as a 
national deliverer, — when Jesus gave him proof of 
supernatural and prophetic knowledge, exclaimed, 
" Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King 
of Israel" Peter, after many and more striking 
evidences of a divine mission, declared, " Thou art 
the Christ, the Son of the living God." But Peter 
afterwards denied him, and perhaps, with the other 
disciples, lost all faith in him at his crucifixion. Yet, 
after the resurrection and ascension of his Master, 
he was the boldest of them all. As one of the wit- 
nesses of these decisive events, he confronted his 
whole nation, and told the rulers to their face, that 
they had been the betrayers and murderers of the 
true Messiah. 

But Peter proved his faith, not only by his words, 
but by his deeds. He spent his life in preaching 
Jesus as the true Messiah, first to the Jews, proba- 
bly without a full comprehension of the extent of 
his mission, and after the vision at Joppa, to both 
Jews and Gentiles, as the great spiritual Teacher of 
the world, and the pledge of immortality to all man- 
kind. The Jewish fisherman, ignorant, narrow, rash, 
and unstable, is in the course of years transformed 
into the Christian sage, saint, and martyr, calm, 
wise, deliberate, self-possessed, and immovable. In 
old age, after having passed through every possible 
trial of his faith, he writes a clear and undoubting 
9 



98 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

declaration of his faith : " Blessed be the God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to 
his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a 
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from 
the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for 
you, who are kept by the power of God through 
faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last 
time." 

Nothing can exceed the calm confidence here ex- 
pressed in the resurrection of Christ, the cardinal 
miracle of the Christian religion, and in that immor- 
tality which was assured by it. And then, if we are 
to receive the Second Epistle as Peter's, and the 
critical objections to it are, in my judgment, very 
slight, we have another most explicit declaration of 
faith. " For we have not followed cunningly devised 
fables, when we made known unto you the power 
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye- 
witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God 
the Father honor and glory, when there came such a 
voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And 
this voice which came from heaven we heard, when 
we were with him in the holy mount." 

In the Epistle of James, we see the same firm and 
confident faith. But his Christianity and his faith in 
Christ are of a different type, as became the pecu- 
liarities of his temperament and circumstances. He 
was a Jerusalem Jew, though converted to Chris- 
tianity, and it is probable that he continued to con- 
form himself to the law of Moses, as well as the 
Gospel, as long as he lived. Confined, as it would 



FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 99 

seem, to Jerusalem all his days, and mingling the 
law of Moses with the Gospel, without the dialectic 
learning of Paul, or the poetic and creative genius of 
John, he seems to have regarded the new dispensa- 
tion as merely supplementary to the old, and Chris- 
tianity itself as only a more stringent and spiritual 
law. There is nothing in him of the high ideality 
which led John to personify the Word ; nor of that 
broad conception of Christianity, which led the Apos- 
tle of the Gentiles to speak of Jesus everywhere as the 
world-redeeming Messiah. To him, the Calvinistic 
abuse of the doctrine of justification by faith was in 
the highest degree offensive. In one thing, however, 
he coincides with his fellow- Apostles, in a firm and 
undoubting faith, maintained in the face of a perse- 
cuting world. It was a sufficient expression of his 
faith, that he was willing to forsake his countrymen, 
and preside over the Christian Church in the midst 
of the betrayers and murderers of his Master. His 
Epistle, short as it is, is his testimony to all succeed- 
ing ages, and leaves his faith to be accounted for 
by those who suppose that Christianity was first 
founded on some grand deception or mistake. 

I return to the Apostle John. In him we see, in 
my judgment, not only the strongest marks of a 
personal faith, but of a faith having passed through 
the stage of mere belief, and arrived at the higher 
one of sentiment and affection. We do not readily 
give our affections, until our full confidence is won. 
As long as any doubt remains, there is a fear of 
the disappointment and mortification that always 
follow the consciousness of having been deceived, 
which forbids intimacy, and chills the current of 



100 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

affection. In the case of John, there is ample proof 
that there was left in his mind no doubt of the per- 
fect integrity of his Master. 

His opportunities of full and accurate knowledge 
were ample and satisfactory. He had been a dis- 
ciple of John the Baptist, and was with Jesus from 
the very commencement of his ministry. He was 
the disciple whom Jesus loved, and on whose bosom 
he leaned, or, in modern phrase, was his most inti- 
mate companion. He.was one of the three who were 
permitted by Jesus to behold the transfiguration. 
He was one of the two who ran to the sepulchre, on 
the morning of the resurrection, and ascertained, by 
personal inspection, that the body of Jesus was not 
there. To his care the mother of Jesus was intrusted 
by his latest breath. From her he must have learned, 
during the remainder of her life, everything in the 
history of her son which could either confirm or 
shake his faith. 

It is the tradition of the Church, and his Gospel 
bears the evidence, that it was written long' after the 
others. The experiences of a long ministry must 
have either corroborated or unsettled his faith. Je- 
sus, during his life on earth, had made large prom- 
ises of divine aid to his Apostles, when he should 
have left the world; in the first place, to give them 
assurance that he was still in being y in the second, to 
give them guidance and direction as to what they 
were to do in his cause, and in the third place, to 
confer upon them those miraculous powers which 
were necessary to confirm their faith in their Mas- 
ter's mission, and the reality of their own. He must 
have known whether those promises were ever ful- 
filled. 



FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 



101 



If they were not fulfilled, it is impossible to con- 
ceive that his confidence in his Master could have 
been maintained, or that he and his fellow-disciples 
could have gone forward to act in his cause. 

Yet he did persevere. The whole course of his life 
was changed by his faith in Jesus of Nazareth. His 
youth was passed as a fisherman on the Lake of 
Galilee. His middle life and old age, in foreign 
lands, in a pursuit as diverse from his early occupa- 
tion as can possibly be conceived, — as a teacher and 
an apostle of a spiritual and universal religion. 

He had not been entrapped and led into such a 
course of life by any specious and deceitful promises. 
There were no prospects of power, or wealth, or 
honor held out to him, to induce him to abandon a 
certainty for an uncertainty. When he left all to 
follow Jesus, he was not induced to embrace his new 
course of life with the delusive prospect of bettering 
his worldly condition ; but he was told, on the con- 
trary, at the outset, that he had nothing to expect, 
from his connection with Jesus, but enmity and per- 
secution. " Let him that cometh after me deny 
himself, and take up his cross and follow me." There 
was nothing left, then, but an unwavering 1 faith in 
his Master, which could have operated to induce 
John to adhere to the cause of Jesus, to the utter 
neglect and forfeiture of every worldly interest. 

We have his life, then, as the testimony of his 
faith, the strongest that could possibly have been 
given. We have, moreover, the testimony of his 
Gospel, which is the spoken testimony of his heart 
and mind. It is deliberate, cool, and careful, writ- 
ten after the experience and reflection of a long life. 
9* 



102 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

It is, as I have already said, the tradition of the 
early Church, that the Gospel of John was written 
long after the others, and at a distance from the 
Holy Land. Everything about this Gospel corre- 
sponds with this supposition. The circumstances of 
the Church had wholly changed. The Gospel at 
first was preached exclusively to the Jews. It was 
necessary to their faith, that Jesus should have 
sprung from the families of Abraham and David. 
Hence the genealogies, and the early, personal his- 
tory of Jesus. 

When John wrote his Gospel, Christianity was 
already established, foreigners had been converted 
to it, and had begun to corrupt its doctrines by an 
admixture of the Oriental philosophies. The hu- 
manity of Christ was denied. The authority of the 
Old Testament was disputed. The Jehovah of the 
ancient dispensation was degraded into an inferior 
and subordinate Deity. 

To guard against the errors of the time, as well as 
strengthen the true faith of the Church, seems to 
have been the purpose which John had in view in 
writing his Gospel. He begins, therefore, with the 
origin, not of the person of Christ, but the origin of 
his Gospel. It is the Word of God. It comes from 
the very centre of the Divine Essence. It is one of a 
series of revelations running back to the very begin- 
ning of all created things. God made himself known 
in the creation of the visible universe, when " he 
spake, and it was done ; he commanded, and it 
stood fast"; — in the creation of the human soul, 
which is his brightest image that is seen below, since 
it is God's inspiration which giveth man understand- 



FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 103 

ing, and lighteneth every man that cometh into the 
world. He made himself especially known to his an- 
cient church. His word was spoken by the proph- 
ets, " who spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost." 

But in Jesus this Divine manifestation, this out- 
speaking of the Divinity, shone out with an especial 
lustre, and became still more distinct and articulate. 
It dwelt in him, as it were in a tent. " The Word 
was made flesh, and dwelt, tabernacled, among us, 
and we beheld his glory, the glory as of an only son 
with his father," as the text literally reads. The 
man Jesus, body and soul, became merely the me- 
dium, or instrument, of Divine manifestation. 

"What that glory was with which Jesus was in- 
vested in the eyes of his disciples appears as we 
advance in the narrative. It was his superhuman 
power and his supernatural knowledge. This is shown 
in the account of the first miracle of changing the 
water into wine, at the marriage feast in Cana of 
Galilee. " This beginning of miracles did Jesus in 
Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory, and 
his disciples believed on himP 

Now, whatever difficulties there may be in the 
verbal interpretation of John's Gospel, there can be 
no doubt that it was written from the highest point of 
faith, that is of belief in the supernatural in Christ. 
Indeed, this is the very key of the structure of the 
whole Gospel. It is a narrative, as we have seen, of 
some of the most remarkable manifestations of the 
supernatural in Jesus, both in words and works. This 
is the declared purpose for which it was written. 
After relating the appearance of Jesus to his disciples 



104 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

subsequent to his resurrection, in which the doubts of 
Thomas were removed by touching his body and feel- 
ing his wounds, the writer adds : " And many other 
signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, 
which are not written in this book. But these are 
written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God, and that, believing, ye might have 
life through his name." Now the specific meaning of 
the word rendered "sign" here is a miraculous man- 
ifestation of divine power, intended to authenticate 
some prophet or divine messenger, and to assure the 
world that he comes from that God who alone has 
power to disturb the structure or change the order of 
nature. 

Review the whole Gospel, and you will find that 
this sentence is an explanation of its whole plan. It 
is, as I have before remarked, a selection from the 
principal miracles of Christ, which were most calcu- 
lated to arrest the attention and fix the faith of those 
who witnessed them. The first is his supernatural 
knowledge of the character and recent history of 
Nathaniel, by which he was converted to belief in 
Jesus as the Messiah. The next is the miracle of 
changing the water into wine, at the marriage feast 
in Cana. Then follows the exhibition of a miracu- 
lous knowledge of the character, thoughts, and pur- 
poses of Nicodemus, by which that cautious states- 
man was baffled and overpowered. Next comes the 
interview with the woman of Samaria, at the well of 
Jacob, in which, by the minuteness of his acquaint- 
ance with her present circumstances and former life, 
he convinced her that he was the Messiah. The 
next in order is the cure of the lame man at the pool 



FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 105 

of Bethesda, who had been a notorious cripple for 
eight and thirty years. This was done on the Sab- 
bath, and was followed by a legal investigation. To 
prove the breach of the Sabbath, of which Jesus was 
accused, it was necessary to admit and establish the 
miraculous cure. The narrator then passes on to the 
feeding of five thousand men in a desert place, with 
the five loaves and two small fishes. The miracle 
so much resembled the feeding of Israelites in the 
wilderness by Moses with manna from heaven, that 
a temporary enthusiasm was created, and the mul- 
titude were ready to take him by force and make 
him a king. Then follows what is intended to be 
an exhibition of miraculous knowledge of the secret 
character and history of the accusers of the woman 
taken in adultery, by which they were all, to a man, 
convicted by their own consciences, and put to flight. 

One of the most public and well authenticated of 
Christ's miracles was giving sight to the man born 
blind. This is related minutely, and dwelt on at 
length. The impression is recorded, which was 
made upon the spectators, that Jesus was sent of 
God. 

Greatest of all the divine attestations of the divine 
mission of Jesus, except his own resurrection, was 
the raising of Lazarus. This is narrated with the 
greatest particularity. The conduct and sentiments 
of the persons introduced are all in admirable keep- 
ing, and bear all the marks and features of historic 
truth. It was the turning-point of the fate of Jesus, 
and raised such a tempest of persecution against 
him, that it terminated in his death. 

The Gospel of John is most full in relating the 



106 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

different appearances of Christ after his resurrection, 
which were all, of course, supernatural. The tale is 
told with the particularity of an eyewitness, and is 
brought to bear on the great and fundamental article 
of the Christian faith, the Messiahship of Jesus, and 
his divine authority as the Sent of God. 

Coincident with the Gospel of John, in its whole 
tone and complexion, is his First Epistle. It is an 
independent document, apparently drawn up in his 
extreme old age, bearing the same firm and un- 
wavering testimony to the supernatural in Jesus. 
The first two verses are a recitation, and, in fact, a 
key, to the introduction to his Gospel, otherwise 
somewhat obscure in its peculiar phraseology. That 
which was divine and superhuman in Jesus, that 
which came from God and from heaven, and was 
called " the Word " in the Gospel, is in the Epistle 
called "the Word of Life," and in the second 
verse " Eternal Life," thus neutralizing the con- 
ception of the personality of the Word, which has 
so extensively prevailed in the Christian Church. 
That which the Gospel represents as masculine, the 
Epistle expresses by words which are feminine and 
neuter. " That which was from the beginning, which 
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 
which we have looked upon, and our hands have 
handled, of the Word of Life. For the Life was 
manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, 
and show unto you that Eternal Life which was 
with the Father, and was manifested unto us." 

Not only does he cherish this faith himself, but he 
makes it the instrument of salvation, the main foun- 
tain of the Christian life. " And we have seen, and 



FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 107 

do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the 
Saviour of the world." " Whosoever shall confess 
that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, 
and he in God." To the same effect, " Whosoever 
believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." 

I now come to Paul. There are historical facts 
connected with him of vital importance to the faith 
of the Christian world. There is no person in all 
antiquity whose real existence is more certain to us. 
We have a sketch of his life in the Acts, and we 
have his correspondence in his Epistles. The coin- 
cidence between the two is so accurate and so mi- 
nute, and at the same time so apparently undesigned, 
that it leaves us in no doubt, that he who lived the 
life was the author of the writings. 

We have observed, that the view taken of Jesus 
by the other Apostles had in each case something 
peculiar, personal, and appropriate ; and therefore 
the personal peculiarities of each, appearing in their 
writings, constitute a distinct feature of truth and 
probability. This is eminently the case with the 
writings of Paul. 

The history informs us, that he had never known 
Jesus in the flesh. He was known to him only as a 
spirit in the spiritual world. Not only as a spirit, 
but as a powerful agent, watching over and promot- 
ing the interests of the Christian Church. He him- 
self was converted from a violent persecutor of the 
Christians to a belief in Jesus as the Messiah, by a 
personal appearance of the Crucified, with an over- 
whelming manifestation of supernatural power, — 
the flashing at noonday of a light from heaven so 
bright as to cause him to fall prostrate to the earth, 



108 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

and to deprive him of his sight for a season. In the 
midst of this manifestation of supernatural power, a 
voice comes to him from Christ himself, expostulating 
with him for his cruelty. " Saul, Saul, why perse- 
cutest thou me ? " The consequence is, that Paul 
is converted. He is informed in Damascus, by 
Ananias, that God had chosen him as an apostle of 
the new faith. " The God of our fathers hath chosen 
thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that 
Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 
For thou shalt be his witness unto all men, of what 
thou hast seen and heard." 

After this, in a trance, while he prayed in the 
temple at Jerusalem, Jesus appeared to him a second 
time, and expressly sent him on a mission to the 
Gentiles. We must likewise, I believe, regard as 
an interview with Jesus the vision at Corinth, which 
is narrated in the eighteenth chapter of Acts. Then 
spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, " Be 
not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace ; for 
I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt 
thee ; for I have much people in this city." 

After such peculiar experience, such spiritual in- 
tercourse with the Saviour, not, like that of the 
other Apostles, here in the flesh, and at a period 
now receding to a distance, we find him speaking 
of him in a manner as peculiar as his experience. 
In the commencement of his Epistles, he introduces 
him, in connection with God, as exercising a con- 
tinued agency in the care of the Church, whereas 
none of the other Apostles do the same. In the 
Epistle to the Romans, " Grace to you and peace, 
from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." 



FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 



109 



It is from no conception of his participating in the 
divine nature, for the phrase for the Deity is " God 
our Father." " God our Father," of course, repre- 
sents and exhausts the whole divine essence. It is 
not « God the Father," but " God our Father." In 
the First Epistle to the Corinthians, " Grace be to 
you and peace, from God our Father, and from the 
Lord Jesus Christ" The same form occurs in the 
Second Epistle, in Galatians, and the Epistles gen- 
erally. I speak of this as an instance of conformity 
of language to a peculiar experience, which is wor- 
thy of notice, and a strong feature of reality. 

But the characteristic of Paul's Epistles to which 
I wish to devote especial attention is their exhibi- 
tion of a strong abiding and unwavering faith in 
Jesus of Nazareth as the true Messiah, and the Sent 
of God. As abiding, as unwavering, was the con- 
viction, the consciousness, we might rather say, that 
he ivas an Apostle of Jesus Christ. Everywhere 
he writes, without hesitation, doubt, or misgiving, 
" Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ." It is very diffi- 
cult to conceive that he did not know whether he 
was an Apostle of Jesus Christ or not. That he be- 
lieved himself to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ is 
just as certain an historical fact, as it is that there 
was such a person as Paul. 

In these same Epistles, which we feel sure came 
from his hand, we have the assertion over and over 
again that he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ. 
There were occasions on which he was compelled 
to vindicate his apostolic character and authority 
against gainsayers. In writing to the church at 
Corinth which he had founded, and to which he 
10 



110 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

had ministered while he supported himself by man- 
ual labor, but which had been disturbed in his 
absence by some Judaizing teachers, who called 
in question his standing as an Apostle, he says : " I 
am become a fool in glorying ; ye have compelled 
me, for I ought to have been commended of you ; 
for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest Apos- 
tles, though I be nothing. Truly, the signs of an 
Apostle were wrought among you in all patience, 
in signs and wonders and mighty deeds." " Are 
they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool;) I am 
more, in labors more abundant, in stripes above 
measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 
Of the Jews, five times I received forty stripes save 
one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I 
stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day 
I have been in the deep ; in journeyings often, in 
perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my 
own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils 
in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in 
the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness 
and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and 
thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." 

This account of himself is confirmed by the inde- 
pendent testimony of Luke, who was for many 
years his companion and fellow-sufferer. 

Now all these things prove, if anything is capa- 
ble of being proved, the historic fact, not only that 
there was such a person as Paul, and that he did 
and suffered the things which are related of him, 
but that he believed that he was an Apostle of 
Jesus Christ. 

Not only so, not only did Paul believe himself to 



FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. Ill 

be an Apostle of Jesus Christ, but to have been 
more enlightened on one point than the other Apos- 
tles, by especial revelation from Christ himself. That 
point was the extension of the Gospel to the Gentiles, 
He thus speaks of it in his Epistle to the Galatians : 
" But I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which 
was preached of me is not after man ; for I neither 
received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by 
the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard 
of my conversation in time past in the Jews' re- 
ligion, how, that beyond measure I persecuted the 
Church of God and wasted it ; and profited in 
the Jews' religion above my equals in mine own 
nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the tra- 
ditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, 
who separated me from my mother's womb, and 
called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me, 
that I might preach him among the heathen, imme- 
diately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither 
went I up to Jerusalem to them which were Apos- 
tles before me ; but I went into Arabia, and returned 
again unto Damascus." 

In his Epistle to the Ephesians he refers to the 
same subject in similar language : " For this cause, 
I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gen- 
tiles, — if ye have heard of the dispensation of the 
grace of God, which is given me to you-ward ; how 
that by revelation he made known unto me the mys- 
tery, .... which in other ages was not made known 
unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the 
holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the 
Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same 



112 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by 
the Gospel." 

Now, no one can read this without feeling that 
Paul believed what he wrote, and that to him it was 
a solemn reality that he was an Apostle of Jesus 
Christ, or that he labored for about thirty years 
under a most astonishing hallucination. 

Thus, the evidence of the New Testament is con- 
clusive, that all the immediate disciples of Jesus, 
and afterwards his Apostles, had the deepest convic- 
tion of the divine mission and authority of their 
Master. 

Thus the faith of the world draws its nourish- 
ment from the faith of the Apostles. It is a faith 
of sympathy as well as of conviction. Belief is 
generated in the mind, while the eyes take in the 
simple, earnest testimony of the original witnesses. 
There is such sincere conviction in their own 
hearts, that the thought scarcely occurs to us to 
doubt them, any more than to distrust the evi- 
dence of our senses. 



DISCOURSE VIII. 



PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

THINK NOT THAT I AM COME TO DESTROY THE LAW OR THE 
PROPHETS : I AM NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFIL. 
FOR VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH 
PASS, ONE JOT OR ONE TITTLE SHALL IN NO WISE PASS 
FROM THE LAW TILL ALL BE FULFILLED. WHOSOEVER, 
THEREFORE, SHALL BREAK ONE OF THESE LEAST COM- 
MANDMENTS, AND SHALL TEACH MEN SO, HE SHALL BE 
CALLED THE LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN : BUT 
WHOSOEVER SHALL DO AND TEACH THEM, THE SAME 
SHALL BE CALLED GREAT IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
FOR I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT EXCEPT YOUR RIGHTEOUS- 
NESS EXCEED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SCRIBES AND 
PHARISEES, YE SHALL IN NO CASE ENTER INTO THE KING- 
DOM of heaven. — Matthew v. 17 - 20. 

It is a fact of no slight importance among the 
historical evidences of Christianity, that Jesus incul- 
cated the most stringent, uncompromising, and exacting 
morality that was ever promulgated among men. It 
is both minute and comprehensive. It is practical, 
at the same time that it is spiritual. It is reasonable, 
at the same time that it appeals to the highest and 
purest motives that can be proposed to the human 
mind. It neglects every worldly and inferior motive, 
and refers to justice, to sympathy, and the will of God. 
10* 



114 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

It passes over prudence and a worldly expediency, 
and points to the All-seeing Eye and the retributions 
of eternity. It will be the object of this discourse, 
first to call attention to this feature of the teaching 
of Jesus, and then to show its bearing on the great 
question, whether his doctrine was of God or whether 
he spoke of himself. 

I shall first notice the fact of the stringent and un- 
compromising morality of the teaching of Jesus. To 
show this, it will not be necessary to go beyond the 
Sermon on the Mount. I appeal to every reader to 
say, if he is not struck with astonishment, and almost 
filled with despair, as he reads sentence after sen- 
tence of this most searching discourse. The field of 
human duty becomes exceeding broad, the sphere of 
conscience is extended to the minutest objects in it, 
and we rise from the perusal, exclaiming, Who then 
can be saved? He commences by declaring that 
they are in error who imagine that he is to relax 
the strictness of the Mosaic laws, or promulgate a 
system which demands a less degree of moral excel- 
lence. He who breaks one of the least of the Mosaic 
precepts, or teaches others to do so, shall have no 
claim to the name of a Christian. 

But the Mosaic law had been corrupted and ex- 
plained away. The Scribes and Pharisees, who 
were the chief religious teachers of the time, had 
weakened the force of the ancient commandments, 
imperfect as they were. They had given men pre- 
tences for the indulgence of their passions and ap- 
petites, retaining still a claim to the religious char- 
acter. Righteousness they made to consist in a scru- 
pulous performance of the ceremonial law. They 



PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 115 

paid to religious purposes a tenth part of their gar- 
den herbs, but indulged in spiritual vices within the 
secret recesses of their own minds, and gave way to 
malice and all uncharitableness. 

Jesus, in the very opening of his first discourse, cut 
up this Pharisaical morality by the roots, and placed 
the spiritual before the ceremonial. " Ye have heard 
that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not 
kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of 
the judgment. But I say unto you, That whosoever 
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in 
danger of the judgment." And from this he goes on 
to deduce the general principle of the worthlessness 
of all ceremonial performances in comparison with 
the spiritual virtues of the soul. " Therefore, if thou 
bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember est that 
thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy 
gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first be recon- 
ciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." 

With what utter discouragement must this have 
struck upon the ears of a Jew, who was accustomed 
to believe that the very act of sacrifice was an atone- 
ment for his moral delinquencies, and a substitute for 
a scrupulous obedience to the Divine law ! 

Next he proceeds to the government of the appetites, 
and promulgates a law so stringent, that the wisest 
of men have exclaimed against it as altogether too 
severe for human infirmity. " Ye have heard that 
it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not 
commit adultery. But I say unto you, That who-, 
soever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath com- 
mitted adultery with her already in his heart." But 
this doctrine, though severe, is after all only reason- 



116 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

able and just. Of course, the possession of appetite 
is not culpable, for if so, God would be the author 
of sin ; but the will to indulge it in opposition to the 
higher law of the mind. 

He next proceeds to the law of divorce, and greatly 
restricts the license which was given by the Mosaic 
law in this respect. In that age the liberty of divorce 
which had been allowed to husbands was carried to 
the greatest excess. The happiness of wives and 
families was sacrificed to the most trifling gratifica- 
tion of ill-temper or caprice. How slight the mar- 
riage vow was held was revealed by the result of 
that searching proposition made by the prophetic 
mind of Jesus, when the woman was brought before 
him taken in adultery : " Let him that is without 
sin among you cast the first stone." "And they that 
heard it, being, convicted by their own conscience, 
went out one by one, beginning with the eldest even 
unto the last." How low must the condition of 
morality have fallen, when of a group of men taken 
indiscriminately from the community there was not 
one who had not broken the seventh commandment ! 

He proceeds to show that the laws of Moses, im- 
perfect as they were, had not been carried out, but 
had been nullified and explained away by the teach- 
ings and traditions of men. The law of oaths and 
the sin of profaneness received from him a more com- 
prehensive and universal exposition. " Swear not 
at all," said he. " Let your communication be Yea, 
yea ; Nay, nay ; for whatsoever is more than these 
cometh of evil." 

Next comes a total prohibition of revenge and 
retaliation, which was thought allowable under the 



PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 117 

elder dispensation, and esteemed even praiseworthy 
and magnanimous among the heathen. Sylla, one 
of the greatest among the Romans, caused it to be 
engraved upon his tombstone as his highest glory, 
that no one had ever outdone him in benefiting his 
friends or in taking vengeance on his enemies. 

The precept of Jesus was, " Resist not evil." 
f Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, 
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them 
which despitefully use you and persecute you ; that 
ye may be the children of your Father which is in 
heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and 
on the unjust." 

He next proceeds to draw a sharp line of distinc- 
tion between true and false devotion, and sends his 
disciple to the privacy of his own closet, and opens 
his soul to the secret glance of the omniscient God. 
To use the forms of devotion is not prayer. Prayer 
is the sincere, the fervent communion of the soul with 
God, and the publican who smote upon his breast 
with the ejaculation, " God be merciful to me a 
sinner!" " went down to his house justified,^ — with 
that peace which true devotion never fails to bring 
with it. 

Then comes the duty of forgiveness ; a duty so 
hard to the proud and haughty spirit, which so 
easily springs up and nestles in the heart of man. 
Yet it must be done, for it has an awful alternative 
and penalty when unfulfilled. " For if ye forgive 
men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will for- 
give you. But if ye forgive not men their tres- 
passes, neither will your Father forgive your tres- 
passes." 



118 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

Next, he proceeds absolutely to forbid worldli- 
ness and avarice^ the besetting sin of humanity. 
* Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 
where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where 
thieves break through and steal. But lay up for 
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth 
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not 
break through nor steal." " Ye cannot serve God 
and Mammon." 

An eager pursuit of the things of this world he 
counts a pagan vice, wholly unworthy of a people 
who have received a revelation from God, and, of 
course, are taught a higher object of being. " There- 
fore take no thought, saying, "What shall we eat ? or, 
What shall we drink ? or, Wherewithal shall we be 
clothed ? for after all these things do the Gentiles 
seek; for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye 
have need of all these things. But seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all 
these things shall be added unto you." 

"Where else can we find such severe morality as 
this ? Wealth is forbidden to be sought as an end. 
If it be, it is too apt to become an object of idola- 
try. It enslaves the mind. An inordinate desire 
of wealth degenerates into a worship of Mammon, 
And then the very purpose of the possession of 
wealth is defeated. 

The first legitimate use of wealth is to free the 
mind from anxiety. A multitude of wants is inevi- 
table. They pursue us from the cradle to the grave. 
To be freed from their importunities is certainly a 
very natural object of desire. But when a man 
passes on from this, and seeks wealth for its own 



PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 119 

sake, for the mere pleasure of possessing riches, the 
very care of it brings an anxiety of its own, and 
too often it augments to an intolerable burden. 

Such was the standard of morality set up by 
Christ. It is an historical fact, if anything in the 
New Testament is to be relied on as such, that 
these were the requirements proposed by him to be 
exacted of his followers. It is a genuine, thorough, 
sincere, spiritual morality. It is not a mere pru- 
dence, it is not based on a worldly expediency. It 
appeals to no low or earthly motive. Its appeal is 
to the all-seeing eye of the omniscient God. Its 
requirements, therefore, and its motives, are far above 
anything that had ever been taught before. 

The Jews, we have already seen, had learned 
nothing from their law so pure and exalted. The 
teachings of Christ were a new revelation to them, 
and we clearly see why " they were astonished at 
his doctrine," and confessed that " never man spake 
like this man." 

If it was so with the Jews with regard to Jesus, 
how much more must it have been with the heathen 
with regard to his Apostles, when they went abroad 
beyond the bounds of Judaea to propagate the Gos- 
pel in foreign lands! The contrast between the 
requirements of Christianity and the practices of 
the purest pagan communities was wide. We 
have reason to believe, from heathen testimonies, 
that the descriptions given by Paul, who was him- 
self a native of a pagan city, were not overcharged 
when he declares that they were "filled with all 
unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetous- 
ness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, 



120 • HISTORICAL FACTS. 

deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of 
God, despiteful ; proud, boasters, inventors of evil 
things, disobedient to parents, without understand- 
ing, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, im- 
placable, unmerciful." 

There was, in fact, among the heathen, nothing 
to sustain morality. Morality has a natural depend- 
ence on religion and theology. The religion of the 
heathen was nothing but a mass of superstitious 
observances, having very little connection with the 
regulation of the heart, or the conduct of life. To 
keep up the forms of external religion, the priest- 
hood were compelled to make liberal compromises 
with the vices of mankind. They bribed men to 
sacrifice, by concluding the religious ceremonies 
with a feast, in which the sensual propensities of 
men were indulged with an almost unlimited license, 
and the very temples of the gods were often the 
fountain-head of impurity and licentiousness. 

Their religious rites were for the most part idle 
ceremonies, or pompous processions, or public games, 
or hidden mysteries, which neither enlightened the 
mind nor quickened the conscience. Their priests 
were ordinary men, engaged in the common pursuits 
of the world, lawyers, generals, politicians, with no 
more than an average intellectual culture, or religious 
experience, or sanctity of life. 

The theology upon which their religion was 
founded was, if possible, more imperfect and objec- 
tionable still. The gods whom they worshipped, 
instead of being models of character, were stained 
with nearly all the vices which pollute and degrade 
mankind. The thief and the robber had his patron 



PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 121 

deity, to whom he prayed as fervently as the virtuous 
man did to Jupiter himself. 

Morality itself was studied as a science by a few 
philosophers, some of whom went far in ascertaining 
its principles and precepts. But the different schools 
of philosophers differed from each other on the most 
important matters of human duty. Everything was 
thrown into a state of uncertainty. There was no 
provision made for public instruction, or for commu- 
nicating to the many the knowledge which was pos- 
sessed by the few. 

But it is an historical fact, that the Apostles went 
forth ivith the simple power of the Gospel, and wrought a 
moral revolution. They formed a Church on a higher 
moral level than had ever been conceived of before. 
They were not philosophers, nor highly educated 
men, yet they promulgated a system of theological 
doctrine, and of moral duty, such as all the philoso- 
phers had been unable to invent. Mankind were 
brought to submit to the great law of self denial, the 
severest yoke that was ever imposed on man, the 
indispensable condition and the most effectual disci- 
pline of virtue. 

What now are the inferences to be drawn from 
these historical facts, as to the origin of Chris- 
tianity ? 

In the first place, the perfect morality of the Gos- 
pel is a demonstration of the supernatural wisdom of 
Jesus. To invent a code of morals which should be 
perfect, exactly adjusted to human nature as it is, — 
which should be adapted to man in every possible 
condition, satisfy his reason and his conscience, and 
at the same time impose no impracticable restraint 
11 



122 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

upon his passions and appetites, steer a middle 
course between ascetic self-denial and Epicurean 
self-indulgence, neither sacrifice the individual to 
society nor society to the individual, — which should 
accompany man in every step of his development, 
and make him prosperous and successful in all, — 
requires a wisdom second only to that which was 
necessary to create the world. It is this feature in 
Christianity which has struck the profoundest minds 
and the greatest statesmen with astonishment. 

Its extreme difficulty has been manifested by the 
utter failure of the greatest minds that have ever ap- 
peared in the world, when they have attempted the 
same. Lawgivers had tried it, philosophers had tried 
it, and all had failed. The wise men of Greece had 
enunciated a few propositions, and laid down a few 
rules of life, which strike the mind, even of a Chris- 
tian, as true and noble. But a few short sentences 
were enough to make the reputation of a great man. 

They acknowledged themselves involved in great 
uncertainty, and that all were wrong in many things 
was too clearly proved by the fact that they differed 
from each other. Truth is one, and when different 
minds discover it, it finds its strongest corroboration 
in that coincidence. 

The Sermon on the Mount contained within its 
short compass more wisdom than all the philosophers 
combined. And it is enunciated not as a matter of 
opinion, as were the dogmas of the philosophers ; it 
is promulgated upon authority, as a matter of cer- 
tainty, as fixed as the universe itself. And when 
Jesus left the earth, he commanded his disciples, 
" Go, preach my Gospel to every creature." 



PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 123 

Moreover, the wisdom of Jesus was crowned and 
consummated by a faultless life, a deportment free 
from every taint of eccentricity or extravagance. He 
kept himself at an equal distance from affectation^ 
asceticism, and sensuality. Whatever fanaticisms or 
excesses have appeared in different ages among the 
professed followers of Christ, none of them could 
ever plead the shadow of a precedent or example in 
their Master. He sat at feasts with the publican 
and Pharisee, he ministered miraculously to the fes- 
tivities of a marriage, yet he shunned alike the os- 
tentatious sanctity of the Pharisee and the profane 
license of the Sadducee. And the absurd seclusion 
of the Essene, and his self-imposed abstinence from 
every natural gratification, were equally alien to the 
wise moderation of the Legislator of the world. 

In the second place, the perfect morality of the 
Gospel is a guaranty of the absolute integrity of Je- 
sus. He professed to derive his doctrines immedi- 
ately from God. " My doctrine is not mine, but his 
that sent me." " I have given unto them the words 
which thou gavest me," said he, in his last solemn 
parting prayer with his disciples, "and they have 
received them, and have known surely that I came 
out from thee, and they have believed that thou 
dost send me." 

The perfection of his doctrine corresponded with 
the source from which he professed to derive it. It 
bore this evidence of a divine original, that not only 
had no one ever devised so perfect a system, and 
even no combination or succession of men been able 
to do it, but it immediately began to be corrupted in 
the hands of his successors. Not only was the whole 



124 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

world incapable of inventing' such a system, but 
incapable of preserving it in its perfection when it 
was invented. 

Then we must consider that, if the mission of 
Christ was not real, if he was conscious that he was 
professing an intercourse with the Deity that had 
really no existence, his pretension to it was a fraud 
and a deception. Those who would be inclined to 
think most favorably of such a proceeding would 
call it a pious fraud. It was intended to deceive 
mankind for their good. Was such an habitual 
purpose consistent with the known facts of his char- 
acter ? 

Let us consider how this thing stands. The two 
most prominent characteristics which we discover in 
the history of Jesus are wisdom and piety. Nothing 
is more abhorrent to true wisdom than deception. 
True wisdom discerns that deception generally de- 
feats its own end, if it be a bad one, and much more 
so if the end be good. The benefit which he was to 
confer upon the world was to depend on faith in 
himself in the integrity of his character, and in his 
mission from God. 

What hope could he have of long deceiving the 
world, if his mission was false ? He early rested 
the proof of his mission on his resurrection from the 
dead. If he was conscious that he was not what he 
pretended to be, he must have known that the stone 
would never be rolled from the door of the sepulchre, 
and his enemies would exhibit his lifeless body in 
triumph when the three days were past. 

The supposition of an impostor teaching a perfect 
system of religion and morality is one which strikes 



PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 125 

us as an utter impossibility, and our minds refuse 
to entertain it for a moment. The teaching of the 
New Testament is not the mere exercise of the spec- 
ulative intellect. The heart was in it, for it con- 
tinually appeals to the heart of the reader, and he 
says to himself, " If this does not emanate from per- 
fect integrity, it is in vain to expect that the earth 
will ever afford the spectacle of a man on whom we 
can implicitly rely." 

Thirdly and finally, I come to the main argument 
of this Discourse : How could the world be brought to 
submit to the strict morality of the Christian system ? 
It is an historical fact, that a portion of mankind 
were brought to submit to it. The Church has ever 
maintained a morality far above the level of the 
world. It is one thing to bring mankind to see what 
is right, and quite another to induce them to do it. 
There must have been, not only an increase of light, 
but an increase of motive. There must have been a 
moral cause equal to the effect produced. 

I begin with the Apostles. We cannot read the 
New Testament without perceiving a striking change 
taking place in their characters. They were at first 
narrow-minded, ambitious, selfish, and worldly. In 
their writings, which compose the New Testament, 
we have delineated what they became before they 
left the world. We take, for instance, Peter, an 
impulsive, rash, fickle man, who at one hour of 
the day was ready to die for his Master, and at 
another denied that he knew him, with an oath. 
But take up his Epistle, and you find the un- 
tutored, undisciplined fisherman of Galilee trans- 
formed into a saint and a sage. Oracles of condensed 
11* 



126 HISTORICAL FACTS. 

wisdom and piety flow from his pen, which the 
highest intellect and culture and religious experience 
of after times cannot approach. Such attainments 
could not have been reached without a moral control 
and self-discipline of the most extraordinary char- 
acter. That moral control and self-discipline must 
have had a motive power. And what was it? It 
was an overwhelming conviction of the supernatural 
character and authority of Jesus of Nazareth. Hence 
the phraseology is everywhere, " Our Lord Jesus 
Christ." There was a greatness in him, in his spot- 
less character, in his unerring wisdom, his inviolable 
dignity, his invincible meekness, his oceanic knowl- 
edge, his control over nature, his triumph over 
death, which enthroned him in the hearts of his 
disciples, and made him King of kings and Lord of 
lords. His very presence was a moral power, and 
virtue went out of him continually, to strengthen 
the pure, to reform the wicked, to raise the fallen, 
and restore the lost. 

Next, it is an historical fact, that a church was 
formed at Jerusalem, from the midst of the Jewish 
community, who had been believers in the divine 
mission of Moses, and who were induced to become 
the professed followers of Jesus, and to enter upon a 
life of piety and self-denial far above the level of 
their former discipline. Such a change of religion 
involved sacrifice, social disadvantage, renunciation 
of honor, pleasure, and comfort. What could have 
been a sufficient motive for submission to the rigid 
morality of the Gospel, except a thorough conviction 
of the Divine mission and authority of Jesus and his 
Apostles, who demanded this submission at their 



PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 127 

•hands? How can we account for such a moral 
effect, except by supposing an adequate cause, in 
the exhibition of those miraculous credentials which 
the historical documents of Christianity record to 
have been placed before the senses of that genera- 
tion ? 

The case is stronger with the heathen. The 
change demanded in their daily life was still greater, 
the yoke which they were called to take upon them- 
selves was still heavier. Freedom of action is the 
last thing that men are willing to surrender. Every 
man loves to have his own way, or at least to be 
left to judge for himself, as to what he is to do and 
what he is to forbear ; and he scrutinizes very nar- 
rowly the credentials of him who comes to him 
and attempts to dictate to him his conduct, to lay 
down his duties, and prescribe his indulgences. 
And yet, in the midst of the most luxurious, corrupt, 
and sensual capitals of the Roman empire, Antioch, 
Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome, Christian churches 
were formed, large communities of men and women 
submitted themselves to the pure morality of the 
Gospel, and became worthy followers of the meek 
and lowly Jesus. 

There is no rational way, in my judgment, of ac- 
counting for this historical fact, but by supposing 
that the authority of Jesus and his Apostles ivas sub- 
stantiated by miraculous testimonials, which left no 
doubt that the law they promulgated came from 
God, the only rightful Lord of conscience, and only 
legitimate Legislator of mankind. 



DISCOURSE IX. 



PERSONALITY OF GOD. 

JESUS CRIED AND SAID, HE THAT BELIEVETH ON ME, BE- 
LIEVETH NOT ON ME, BUT ON HIM THAT SENT ME. — John 

xii. 44. 

In the seven preceding Discourses, I have dis- 
cussed one of the constituent elements into which 
I have analyzed the New Testament. I have given 
what seemed to me to be the most prominent his- 
torical facts upon which may be based a rational 
conviction of the divine origin of Christianity. I 
have merely indicated the classification, and enu- 
merated those historical facts which are most con- 
vincing to my own mind. I do not pretend to have 
exhausted the subject. Other facts may be more 
striking to other minds, and each new student of 
the Evidences may be able to bring forth some- 
thing unobserved or undeveloped before. 

I now pass to the second element, the Doctrines 
taught by Christ. Having established the authority 
of Jesus, and exhibited the credentials with which 
he came, it is next in order to ascertain the mes- 
sage he brought, and consider the truths which he 
communicated or confirmed. 



PERSONALITY OF GOD. 129 

The enumeration of these will not be exhaustive. 
It will only embrace the most important. I shall 
pass over the existence and the unity of God, which, 
though clearly taught by Christ, were already in the 
world, one by the teachings of nature, and the other 
being the fundamental doctrine of the Mosaic dis- 
pensation. The providence of God is as clearly 
taught in nature as his existence. . I shall pass, 
therefore, to the Personality and the Paternity of 
God. I shall dwell on the personality, because I 
deem this truth fundamental to religion, and be- 
cause I think the personal history of Christ has 
bearings upon this vital subject, which are not 
always, or perhaps readily, perceived. After these 
will come the Efficacy of Prayer, the Forgiveness 
of Sins, Immortality, and Retribution. 

And first I shall call attention to the confirmation 
which the ministry of Christ lends to the doctrine of 
the Personality of God. 

The power of Christianity in the world depends, 
and always has depended, mainly on the clearer ap- 
prehension and the stronger conviction it gives us of 
the personality of God. It is through Christ chiefly 
that we know God as a person, and thus he is 
brought near to us, he makes real to us our personal 
connection with him, and brings to bear the whole 
infinity of his nature in the form of an ever-present 
intelligence, mind, will, and affections, on our minds, 
wills, and affections. To the extent of that realiza- 
tion, the effect upon our conduct and characters is 
inevitable, almost mechanical, to restrain, to console, 
to awe, and to win us. It is the purpose of this Dis- 
course to unfold this great truth, and to show how 



130 DOCTRINES. 

much it explains of the spiritual life, as well as the 
intellectual dogmatism, of the Church. 

The connection in which this passage stands 
throws much light on its meaning. Many of the 
chief rulers were secretly persuaded that Jesus was 
the true Messiah, yet dared not confess their convic- 
tions, lest they should be expelled from the syna- 
gogue. There was much inconvenience, as well as 
terror and disgrace, in this punishment, and honor- 
able men, as well as true Israelites, shrunk away 
appalled from this kind of notoriety. They felt the 
benefits of standing well with their friends and 
neighbors, and were unwilling to forego them. 

Jesus felt the bearing of these things on himself. 
He felt that there was a prejudice against him per- 
sonally. His humble exterior, his disclaimer of all 
worldly honor and authority, his denial to his follow- 
ers of all personal ambition, he saw were operating 
against the popularity of his cause. Such a position 
could not but have given him pain. 

It was under the influence of these feelings, ap- 
parently, that he exclaimed, in the words of our text, 
" He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but 
on him that sent me." I am nothing. God, who 
acts in and through me, is all in all. I came not to 
attract your notice, or arrogate your homage to my- 
self. I am merely the means of making you sensible 
of your allegiance to God. I do not ask you to fix 
your faith on me, as if I were anything in and of my- 
self. I do not wish to have you believe on me in 
that sense. I wish you to fix your faith more vividly 
and firmly on God, for the manifestations he is 
making of himself through me. This last sentence, 



PERSONALITY -OF GOD. 



131 



as I believe, conveys precisely the sense of the words 
of the Saviour. This, in my judgment, was the 
great end and object of the mission of Christ, — to 
fix the faith of mankind more firmly and vividly on 
God as a personal agent, perpetually present to their 
souls, — that infinite and all-pervading Essence, in 
whom they not only live and move and have their 
being, but who has spoken to them by the voice of 
Jesus Christ. 

No real relation of God to us has ever been 
changed, or ever could be changed, by any inter- 
vention. God is the Former of all bodies, and the 
Father of all spirits. It is by his all-sustaining 
energy that all souls are upheld in being, and in the 
possession of every power that they enjoy. The 
workings of reason and conscience are only his varied 
agency, reason, which teaches us that God is, and 
conscience, which informs us what he requires of us. 

These are the postulates and necessary conditions 
of all external revelation. If there were no common 
revelation of God made by reason, there could be no 
special one made by miraculous communication. 
Were there no innate sense of right, no specific 
revelation could create it. It is impossible, there- 
fore, that supernatural revelation can be anything 
more than supplementary to natural religion, and 
confirmatory of it. 

Let us then consider what natural religion is, 
what are its capabilities, and what are its defects. 

Let us cast books and tradition aside, and con- 
sider what we are taught by what we see and ex- 
perience. In the first place, reason makes us relig- 
ious beings by suggesting to us the intuitive truth, 



132 DOCTRINES. 

that there cannot be an effect without a cause, there 
cannot be motion without a mover, there cannot be 
a creature without a Creator. We are creatures, and 
therefore we must have a Creator. That Creator 
must be commensurate with the work he has made. 
A Being who could create us, body and soul, must 
have unbounded intelligence, must be, as far as we 
can conceive, omniscient. 

As reason reveals to us God as an intellectual 
being, so conscience reveals to us God as a moral 
being. We perceive some things to be right and 
others to be wrong, and we are conscious of moral 
freedom, and power to choose between them. When 
we do right or wrong, we are so constituted as not 
to regard it as a mere private transaction, in which 
we alone are concerned ; but there is another party 
related to it, God, who made and upholds us. We 
have not only been imprudent as respects ourselves, 
but we are guilty before God. Thus we are consti- 
tuted religious beings by the primordial elements of 
our nature. 

But here the clear teachings of natural religion 
stop. Of the nature of God we have only the most 
shadowy conception ; whether he hears our prayers, 
whether he will forgive the penitent, whether he in- 
tends to continue our existence after death, is by the 
light of nature a matter of conjecture, seeming more 
or less probable, according to the state of our minds 
or the presentation of evidence. 

Hence the vast variety and diversity of pagan re- 
ligions. They are the mere developments of natural 
religion, the conclusions of human reason, the ex- 
pressions of human reverence, the acknowledgments 



PERSONALITY OF GOD. 133 

of human guilt, the articulate voice of that universal 
desire to propitiate the Power above, which is innate 
in every human breast. The world would never 
have seen anything better, had there not been some- 
thing better offered in the shape of a revelation, or 
what professed to be a revelation, from heaven, and 
what was received by mankind as such. 

Such was precisely the state of things, as we are 
informed by the Sacred Scriptures, in the days of 
Abraham. That patriarch, we are told, was born 
and educated among idolaters ; and after wandering 
among their doubts and uncertainties, God revealed 
himself to him as a person, saying to him at one 
time : " I am the Almighty God : walk before me, and 
be thou perfect." At another : " Fear not, Abram : I 
am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." 
What an effect must such a communication as this 
have had upon the human mind ! How many 
doubts and uncertainties must have been removed 
by it ! Before, it was a probability that God was a 
person. Henceforward, it was a certainty. God him- 
self had spoken out of the eternal silence. He, who 
is a pure spirit, whose presence is everywhere dif- 
fused, had condescended to accommodate himself to 
man's finite nature and material organization, and to 
assure man of the most important fact, that, though 
infinite in being, he has the attributes of personality. 

How changed must the universe have afterwards 
seemed to the patriarch ! How much more real the 
existence, the providence, and the presence of God ! 
How much more close and personal the relation 
which he himself sustained to the Author of his 
being! 

12 



134 DOCTRINES. 

Pass on to Moses. Mature in years, wise by ex- 
perience, and learned in all the science of Egypt, 
still he knew God only by a dim and distant faith. 
He had heard of the communications made to the 
patriarchs, he had received the tradition of the prom- 
ises. But since the fathers fell asleep, all things had 
remained as they were from the beginning. The 
seasons revolved, the Nile flowed on, generations 
were born and died, and still the chosen people were 
groaning under a cruel bondage. All nations, except 
the descendants of Jacob, were idolaters. Which 
was the true religion, or were they all uncertain 
alike ? In exile, in a desert, where all hope seemed 
to be extinct, he sees the burning bush, and hears 
the voice of God, saying, " I am the God of thy 
fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, 
and the God of Jacob. Go, redeem Israel from the 
bondage of Egypt." 

What an overwhelming, transforming power must 
such an interview have exerted on mortal man ! 
The realization of the personality of God, the cer- 
tainty that he watches over the things of earth, and 
takes an interest in the affairs and fortunes of indi- 
viduals! 

Reason, at first, revolts from such a representation, 
that God should break the uniform order of his 
works, and specially make known his will to any 
individual of the human race, — that God who fills 
immensity and inhabits eternity, and superintends 
the millions of worlds which float in boundless space, 
with all their countless inhabitants. This would 
seem at first incredible, did we not find that he con- 
descends still more, and creates and upholds crea- 



PERSONALITY OF GOD. 135 

tures innumerable in the air we breathe, and in the 
drops of water which fall to our sight clear and un- 
clouded as the light which streams in the sunbeam. 
When we consider these indisputable facts, all our 
presumptions against a divine revelation, a personal 
communication of God to men, become inconclusive, 
and are laid aside as wholly unreliable. 

This conviction of the personality, and at the same 
time of the spirituality of God, must have been com- 
municated by Moses to the Israelites ; they must 
have been confirmed in it by the plagues of Egypt, 
by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by 
night which led them through the wilderness, by the 
daily manna, and by the thunders of Sinai. In the 
tabernacle too, and afterwards in the temple, there 
was some special manifestation of the Divine pres- 
ence. "With a wise economy, the ark, containing the 
tables of the Law and the five books of Moses, was 
placed in the holy of holies, a place entered but once 
a year, and only by the high-priest. Over the ark, 
two cherubim spread out their overshadowing wings. 
There is nothing said of God's personal presence 
there, yet human imagination immediately associ- 
ated him with that place, and the lid of the ark itself 
was called the mercy-seat. Thus it is said in the 
eightieth psalm : " Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, 
thou that leadest Israel like a flock ; thou that 
dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth." And 
in the ninety-ninth : " The Lord reigneth ; let the 
people tremble; he sitteth between the cherubims ; let 
the earth be moved." 

All our ideas of personality being derived from 
some manifestation confined to a definite space, and 



136 DOCTRINES. 

some material organs, it is next to impossible to 
conceive of the personality of God except under the 
same conditions, either by the means of something 
that strikes the eye or ear. It is next to impossible 
to conceive of God as a spirit, everywhere present 
alike. Hence the proneness of all ages to idolatry. 
Human nature, in its weakness, has cried out for 
some material representation of God, to fix thought, to 
aid conception, and to awaken emotion. 

And yet all such representations of God were 
strictly forbidden, because, though they assisted hu- 
man thought, conception, and emotion, they limited 
and degraded God. Instead of elevating man to- 
ward God, as devotion is designed to do, they 
brought down God towards man, and thus neutral- 
ized the most efficient means of his own exaltation. 

God, in communicating with men, was compelled, 
if we may so speak, to condescend to human imperfec- 
tion, and to use material instruments, such as might 
affect the senses of men, — the burning bush, the fire 
of Sinai, — but with a caution that it should not lead 
men into idolatry. Says Moses to the Israelites : 
" And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of 
the fire : ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no 

similitude; only ye heard a voice Take ye 

therefore good heed unto yourselves, (for ye saw no 
manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake 
unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,) lest 
ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, 
the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or 
female." 

Such means were used in the old dispensation to 
reveal the personality of God, to hold personal com- 



PERSONALITY OF GOD. 137 

munion with men, and to aid them in realizing their 
personal relations to him, on which the very power 
and vitality of religion depend. And such were, at 
the same time, the precautions which were taken 
against idolatry, the deification of those things 
through which God held communication with men. 
On the same principle it was, doubtless, that the 
grave of Moses was concealed from the Israelites. It 
was that they might be saved from the snare of ex- 
aggerating their veneration for him into superstition 
and idolatry. It is written of him, that when he 
descended from the mountain, his face shone with a 
preternatural light. What more natural than for the 
ignorance and imagination of after ages to exalt him 
into an incarnation of the Divinity, and pay divine 
honors to him at his tomb ? 

In the new dispensation, there was no burning 
bush, no pillar of cloud and fire, no smoke and flame 
like that of Sinai, with a voice coming out of the 
brightness. There was no tabernacle or temple 
with the glory of the Lord resting upon it, the 
symbol of the Divine presence; no holy of holies 
with its mercy-seat. 

But in the place of all these was the person of 
Jesus Christ. Through him was the new revelation 
made to mankind. His person was the only shrine 
of the Divinity, in which God made himself known 
anew to the human race. We cannot read the New 
Testament without becoming fully impressed with 
the belief, that God revealed himself to Jesus as a 
person, and that Jesus held personal communication 
with God. At the grave of Lazarus, it is recorded 
of him : " And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, 
12* 



138 DOCTRINES. 

Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I 
knew that thou nearest me always ; but because of 
the people which stand by, I said it, that they may 
believe that thou hast sent me." 

Now this language plainly implies, if it does not 
expressly assert, that he had before prayed to God 
for the power to work this miracle of the raising of 
Lazarus, and in answer to his prayer God had given 
him distinct^ intelligible assurance, that he would 
perform the miracle. How this communication was 
made, we do not know, nor perhaps can we know. 
The prayer of Christ had been mental, and the an- 
swer may have been so too. 

But, on the other hand, that there was no commu- 
nity of consciousness between God and Christ, we 
know with the same certainty ; for, in that case, un- 
der no circumstances would it have been possible, or 
consistent, or truthful, for Christ to pray. And he 
himself disclaims the knowledge of the time when 
the destruction of Jerusalem, and the end of the 
Jewish dispensation, were to take place : " Of that 
day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels 
which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father 
only." Both his supernatural knowledge and super- 
natural powers were communicated to a limited ex- 
tent. There was then no incarnation of God; the 
very idea is pagan, not Christian. An infinite spirit 
cannot become incarnate. An infinite God may 
manifest his presence to a finite spirit, incarnate in 
the flesh, so as to make that manifestation a matter 
of certain knowledge. 

This is the very thing which seems to have taken 
place in regard to Jesus. How it was, we cannot 



PERSONALITY OF GOD. 139 

define ; we can judge of it only by its effects, and the 
testimony of Jesus himself. The connection be- 
tween God and Christ is expressed by John in this 
phraseology : " He whom God hath sent speaketh 
the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by 
measure unto him." The gift of the Spirit, not by 
measure, does not affirm, but denies, incarnation. 

As far as we can judge from the history, that ful- 
ness of the Spirit descended upon him at his baptism, 
and from that moment there was manifested by him 
an unapproachable dignity, a conscious authority, an 
unerring wisdom, an oceanic knowledge, comprehen- 
sive, penetrating, and profound, a sinless perfection, 
and a self-command wholly transcending all human 
attainment. To notify to the world this presence of 
God in Christ, or rather, what amounts to the same 
thing, the presence of the Spirit of God without meas- 
ure, — besides its natural consequences, an inviolable 
dignity, a sinless perfection, and a wisdom high as 
heaven and deep as the sea, — external nature was 
subjected to his command, diseases departed, the 
dead were raised, and the storm was stilled. 

But this is not the precise point which it is the 
design of this Discourse to touch. There was, as the 
consequence or the substance of all this, a conscious 
communing' of Christ with God as a person, which was 
peculiar and unexampled; and consequently a knowl- 
edge of God and spiritual things, most intimate, 
special, and precious to the world. It is professed 
and expressed by him on various occasions and in 
various ways. At one time he said : " I thank thee, 
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou 
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and 



140 DOCTRINES. 

hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, 
for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are 
delivered unto me of my Father; and no man know- 
eth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any 
man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom- 
soever the Son will reveal him." At another time : 
"As the Father knoweth me, so know I the Father." 
At another : " And no man hath ascended up to 
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even 
the Son of Man which is in heaven." This is a 
figure of speech derived from the secrecy and seclu- 
sion of Oriental courts, where all public counsels 
were resolved on by the sovereign in the most pri- 
vate apartment of his palace. To know the secret 
counsels of God, therefore, was equivalent to having 
been admitted into the court of heaven. That no 
reference to place is intended, appears by the fact 
that Jesus was then in heaven, in the sense there in- 
tended, though he was locally upon earth. 

By all this variety of language, a deep impression 
is made upon our minds, not only of the divine mis- 
sion of Jesus, but, what is still more important to our 
faith and piety, of the personality of God. God is not, 
as the pantheists represent, the totality of the universe, 
and we ourselves a part of him or it. He is not, like 
the deities of the ancient philosophers, far removed 
from all concern in human affairs, too negligent or 
too insensible to observe our individual condition, or 
to listen to our prayers. He is an infinite spirit, but 
at the same time a person. He revealed himself to 
Jesus as a person. To Jesus that personality was 
not a matter of faith, but of knowledge. He not only 
believed in God, but he knew God, he held com- 



PERSONALITY OF GOD. 141 

munication with God, he received immediate proof 
that his prayer was heard by God. 

Our faith in God is lifted up from the level of 
rational conviction to a higher bond of sympathy with 
Christ's knowledge, and the personality of God be- 
comes a reality to us. 

We are now able to appreciate the force and 
meaning of Christ's words in the text : " He that be- 
lieveth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that 
sent me." As if he said, I, personally, am nothing. 
I ask no homage to myself except as the Sent of God, 
by whom you are enabled to" cherish a more vivid 
and influential faith in the unseen Deity. I come 
not to interpose between you and God, or to inter- 
cept one particle of that reverence which you are 
bound to pay to him, but to strengthen your alle- 
giance to the Infinite Father. 

This measureless communication of the Holy 
Spirit, or, as we may express it, this intimate and 
conscious intercourse of Jesus with God, attracted 
the attention of his Apostles, and made upon their 
minds the profoundest impression, and they labor in 
their language to convey their impression of it. 

Not only did his character, his words and works, 
produce this impression concerning him, but his own 
language concerning himself. The Jews often de- 
manded a sign from heaven, which was nothing 
other than some manifestation of God's especial 
presence, to authenticate Jesus as a divine lawgiver; 
such as the fiery and cloudy pillars, the glories of 
Sinai, or the manna which fell from heaven with the 
dew for forty years. And there was one occasion on 
which the disciples gave into the same idea, and ex- 



142 DOCTRINES. 

pressed the same desire. " Show us the Father," 
said they, " and it sufficeth us." It sufficeth, not our 
curiosity, but our faith. Give us some sensible 
manifestation of the presence of God, such as our 
fathers received from Moses, and then our faith and 
confidence will be full and complete. " Jesus an- 
swered, Have I been so long with you, and yet hast 
thou not known me, Philip ? He that hath seen me, 
hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou then, 
Show us the Father ? Believest thou not that I am in 
the Father, and the Father in me ? " He then goes 
on to explain in what sense. " The words which I 
speak, I speak not of myself ; the Father that d welleth 
in me, he doeth the works." My miraculous words 
and works are sufficient evidence of the special pres- 
ence of God in me. I shall appeal to no burning 
bush, or blazing mountain, or cloudy pillar, or visible 
glory. My miraculous powers, my heavenly doc- 
trines are sufficient. 

Of this indwelling of God in Christ, notwithstand- 
ing some passing doubts, the Apostles were fully 
persuaded, and they express it, as I have already 
said, in a great variety of ways. John, with his 
warm heart and glowing imagination, leads off in 
the commencement of his Gospel. He makes Jesus 
to be an incarnation of God's Word, that revelation 
which God had been making of himself since the 
creation of the world. Such a strong impression 
did that which was divine in Christ make upon 
John, who was daily in his society and leaned on 
his bosom, that to his thought it became personified, 
and is represented as a person. Not only so, it ab- 
sorbs into itself the personality of God on the one 



PERSONALITY OF GOD. 143 

hand, and of Christ on the other. The whole being 
of God is absorbed into the Word. " The Word 
was God," or, as it may be rendered, " God was the 
Word." 

On the other hand, the personality of Jesus, other- 
wise so clearly asserted and implied, is lost sight of, 
or more strictly, perhaps, made the tabernacle, or 
dwelling-place, of the Divine Word. " The Word 
was made flesh, and dwelt among us." And the 
person thus endowed seemed so manifestly conver- 
sant with God, and was so exalted in our sight by 
that manifestation of God's presence, that he seemed 
to be with God as an only son with his father. 

In the same strain he says afterwards : " No man 
hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, 
which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath de- 
clared him." Here the degree of intimacy which 
seemed to subsist between Jesus and God is ex- 
pressed by an allusion to the manner in which the 
Jews sat, or rather reclined, at table. Each leaned 
over the bosom of him who was placed at his left 
hand. To be in one's bosom, then, in Oriental 
phrase, means to be on terms of the greatest inti- 
macy. 

From that intimacy came forth to mankind a 
more perfect knowledge of God. " He who is in the 
bosom of the Father hath declared him." From that 
greater intimacy of Jesus with God, and greater 
knowledge of him, his character, mind, and will, 
came forth Christianity, as superior to Judaism as 
was the knowledge of God possessed by Jesus 
to that possessed by Moses. " And of his fulness 
have all we received, and grace for grace. For the 



144 DOCTRINES. 

law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came 
by Jesus Christ." 

To the same effect he writes in his old age : " And 
we know that the Son of God is come, and hath 
given us understanding, that we might know him 
that is true ; and we are in him that is true through 
his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and 
eternal life." Such is the function which John at- 
tributes to Jesus as the Revealer of the true God. 
To be in God, in the highly figurative language of 
the Apostle, is to knoiv God, to believe in God, to 
trust in God, to obey God. 

In the same direction follows Paul. He compares 
the knowledge we have of God, through Christ, and 
God's presence in Christ, with the shining of the 
face of Moses when he came down from the moun- 
tain. " For God, who commanded the light to shine 
out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give 
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
the face of Jesus Christ." As the light which first 
shone out of darkness at God's command revealed 
the Creator in his works, so he shone out a second 
time to make a clearer revelation of himself through 
the person of Christ, in his supernatural character, 
words, and works. 

Lastly, Peter, in his First Epistle, takes the same 
view of Christ, as the means by which our faith in 
God is strengthened and increased. " Who verily 
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, 
but appeared in these last times for you, who by him 
do believe in God, who raised him from the dead, 
and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might 
be in God." 



PERSONALITY OF GOD. 145 

Thus the writers of the New Testament are 
unanimous in declaring, that faith in Christ has 
nothing to do with his nature; it is faith in God 
through Christ, — the more clear, definite, and effi- 
cient revelation made of him by Jesus, than had 
been made by nature or the Mosaic dispensation. 
As Jesus said himself, " Verily, I say unto you, He 
that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent 
me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into 
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." 



13 



DISCOURSE X 



PATERNITY OF GOD. 

TAKE HEED THAT YE DESPISE NOT ONE OF THESE LITTLE 
ONES ; FOR I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT IN HEAVEN THEIR AN- 
GELS DO ALWAYS BEHOLD THE FACE OF MY FATHER WHICH 
IS IN HEAVEN. FOR THE SON OF MAN IS COME TO SAVE 
THAT WHICH WAS LOST. HOW THINK YE ? IF A MAN HAVE 
A HUNDRED SHEEP, AND ONE OF THEM BE GONE ASTRAY, 
DOTH HE NOT LEAVE THE NINETY AND NINE, AND GOETH 
INTO THE MOUNTAINS, AND SEEKETH THAT WHICH IS GONE 
ASTRAY ? AND IF SO BE THAT HE FIND IT, VERILY I SAY 
UNTO YOU, HE REJOICETH MORE OVER THAT SHEEP, THAN 
OF THE NINETY AND NINE WHICH WENT NOT ASTRAY. 
EVEN SO, IT IS NOT THE WILL OF YOUR FATHER WHICH IS 
IN HEAVEN THAT ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES SHOULD 

perish. — Matthew xviii. 10 - 14. 

Next to the personality of God, in importance 
and moral power, among the doctrines taught or rec- 
ognized by Christ, is the paternity of God, that God 
is a Father. No words can measure the importance 
of this doctrine to Christianity, either in modifying 
our conceptions of the Divine character, or com- 
manding our affections and obedience. The most 
exalting and consoling truths are comprehended and 
implied in this single appellation. 

It implies the correlative truth, that we are the 



PATERNITY OF GOD. 147 

children of God, not alone his creatures, for whose 
physical wants he provides, but his children, for whose 
moral welfare he is above all things solicitous. This 
is a point upon which the human heart desires espe- 
cially to be assured. God's physical providence is 
demonstrable, plain, and undeniable. Man, as an 
animal, is plainly under God's immediate care. Life 
itself is sustained and prolonged by his immediate 
agency. The fertility of the earth produces to man 
his daily food, the sun gives him light by day, and 
the silence and darkness of the night give him a 
season of repose. But this physical care man shares 
with the beasts that perish. 

The animals have only one species of good and 
evil, and that is a merely physical pleasure or dis- 
comfort. That they are generally in a condition of 
tranquillity and enjoyment, by the providence of 
God, is one of the strongest evidences of the Divine 
goodness. 

But to man, there is good and evil of a higher de- 
scription. Superadded to an animal organization, 
instincts, and propensities, he has a moral nature. 
To him there is a wrong- and a right, an honorable 
and a dishonorable, a truth and a falsehood, a sense 
of dignity, satisfaction, and desert, when he has done 
right, and of humiliation, pain, and guilt, when he 
has done wrong. This, of course, puts within the 
power of man the attainment of a higher species and 
degree of happiness than the lower animals, but at 
the same time subjects him to tlfe danger of plun- 
ging into a deeper woe. 

These higher endowments ought to result in the 
attainment of higher happiness. But they do not 



148 



DOCTRINES. 



always arrive at this consummation. They some- 
times lead to a depth of misery which casts all ani- 
mal suffering into the shade. In all cases, the high 
endowments of man are the cause of more or less 
suffering. If it be true that God is the Father of 
mankind, and is possessed at the same time of om- 
niscience and omnipotence, why should the posses- 
sion of a rational, a moral, and a voluntary nature 
be the cause of suffering at all ? If they are neces- 
sarily the cause of suffering, why are they conferred 
on man ? 

God, as a Father, is bound to consult the highest 
moral good of his children. That human father is 
thought to be wanting in the highest manifestation 
of parental affection, who suffers his child to fall into 
one sin which he can prevent, or fail to acquire a 
single virtue which he can give him the means of 
attaining. But what is the fact ? To the imperfect 
vision of man, the moral world seems to be in the 
greatest disorder. The moral welfare of each indi- 
vidual does not seem to be cared for in the highest 
possible manner. No inconsiderable part of the hu- 
man race are seen to pass through life under condi- 
tions most unfavorable to moral development and 
perfection, — in barbarism, in slavery, in ignorance, 
or in the very worst associations. Can the pater- 
nal character of God be vindicated in so arranging 
the world, that any portion of his children should 
be exposed to moral trials so dangerous, and so 
often fatal, to their*happiness ? 

Or some might be disposed to go farther back, and 
inquire, Why should human nature have been con- 
stituted as it is ? Why should the passions and 



PATERNITY OF GOD. 149 

appetites have been made so strong, and reason and 
conscience so weak ? Why should the career of 
humanity commence with infantile weakness and 
ignorance, and wisdom and virtue be the purchase 
of perilous experiment, of pain, regret, and remorse? 
Indeed, so dark is the moral condition of the world, 
so ineffectual the discipline which God has adopted 
for the production of holiness and happiness, that va- 
rious apologies have been thought necessary, in order 
to explain the present state of things in consist- 
ency with the paternal character of God. 

One of them is, that the world is in a state of ruin. 
Human nature is not now in the condition in which 
God created it, but in a state greatly deteriorated. 
By the sin of our first parents, the balance of human 
nature, equal before, between good and evil, received 
a fatal bias to evil, irresistible except by divine inter- 
position. But this explanation does not at all re- 
lieve the character of God. It even casts a worse 
imputation on him than to leave things entirely 
without explanation. No such powers of ruining 
the constitution of human nature could have been 
possessed by the first pair, except by divine appoint- 
ment. If the moral constitution of the posterity of 
Adam is determined by his act, then they are de- 
prived of a fair moral probation, a deprivation aris- 
ing not from the difficulties of their outward circum- 
stances, or the nature of free agency, but from the 
ruin and disorganization of their moral constitution. 

No worse imputation could rest on the character 

of God, and, if this be true, it must be given up as 

wholly indefensible. God is not a Father, if he 

makes such arrangements as to suffer his children to 

13* 



150 DOCTRINES. 

be ruined for ever by an agency over which they have 
not the slightest control. That human father would 
be deemed a monster, who should be guilty of such 
conduct towards his children. 

Another explanation is, that all mankind have 
pre-existed, and in a state of pre-existence have 
fallen from their original integrity, and are now con- 
sequently in a penal state, suffering the just conse- 
quences of previous misconduct. This, however, 
does not remove the difficulty. It only carries it 
farther back. If all mankind are now in a penal 
state, all must have sinned, and the experiment of 
free agency was just as much a failure there as here. 
Besides, all our ideas of justice demand that he who 
is punished should know that he has offended, and 
that he is suffering an appropriate punishment for 
his transgression. But we have no consciousness of 
having sinned in a previous state of existence, and, 
of course, what we suffer can never seem to us to be 
a just punishment, or a punishment at all. It must 
seem to us, if we do not understand the grounds of 
it, as an arbitrary, unjust infliction. 

But there are two species of penal evils, which 
are represented as being inflicted on mankind here ; 
first, pain and sorrow, and, in the second place, moral 
incapacity, an overpowering bias towards evil, a 
disinclination and an inability to good, naturally in- 
vincible. The integrity of God, and the equity of 
his government, demand that human consciousness 
should be conformed to things as they are, and should 
truly report the conditions of our moral action. We 
are conscious of possessing a just balance of moral 
constitution. Our consciousness is the only means 



PATERNITY OF GOD. 151 

which God has given us of coming at this species 
of knowledge, and we cannot do otherwise than be- 
lieve that our consciousness represents things as 
they are. In this matter it is the only interpreter 
between us and God. For its truth the Deity is 
directly responsible, and if we are deceived here, all 
ground of confidence in the Divine character is de- 
stroyed. 

This consciousness is profoundly silent as to any 
previous existence, and as to any change in the 
moral structure of the soul, by which it has received 
a fatal bias to evil. 

Large masses of mankind are taught that " Man, 
in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to 
will and to do that which is good and pleasing to 
God, but yet mutably, so that he might fall from it. 
Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost 
all ability of will to any spiritual good accompany- 
ing salvation." 

Our consciousness, as at present constructed, is 
adjusted to the former state of things, and reproaches 
us, when we choose that which is evil, for having 
refused the good, which was equally within our 
power. If such a deterioration has taken place in 
our nature, that good was not equally in our power, 
then this consciousness is a deception. The change 
in our constitution was not notified to our conscious- 
ness, and therefore, if such a deterioration actually 
took place, nothing can exceed the unfairness and 
injustice with which we are treated by God. We 
are in a worse condition than the Hebrew slaves 
under their Egyptian taskmasters. The straw is 
withheld, but the tale of brick is not diminished, and 



152 DOCTRINES. 

we are punished by the reproaches of our own con- 
science, without fault. Our condition is ivorse than 
theirs, inasmuch as they were punished with the 
consolation of knowing that they were not to blame, 
and we are punished unjustly, with the additional 
cruelty of feeling that we are to blame, when in fact 
we are not. We are deceived by the delusive con- 
sciousness of the possession of a power of which we 
have been deprived ages ago by the act of another, 
over which we had not the slightest control. 

It is impossible for any one, sincerely entertaining 
these opinions in regard to God's treatment of man- 
kind, to believe in his paternal character, or to feel 
towards him as a Father. The declaration of a 
Being who has done such acts, even were we sure 
that we had it, is not reliable, for a Being who had 
deceived us in our consciousness, would not hesitate 
to deceive us in a revelation. 

The highest exhibition of parental love is the best 
possible care of the moral welfare of its children. 
The infliction of total moral incapacity on the unof- 
fending is the strongest possible manifestation of 
parental unkindness, and to an immortal being, who 
must suffer for ever the penal consequences of una- 
voidable transgression, renders all other good gifts 
comparatively unimportant. Especially so is it, if 
that moral incapacity is not notified to the conscious- 
ness, and we are made just as unhappy by wrong- 
doing as if the' moral balance of our constitution 
had never been destroyed. 

They cannot regard God as a Father, who believe 
that he has exempted a part of the human race from 
this moral incapacity by arbitrary election, and con- 



PATERNITY OF GOD. 153 

ferred on them afresh the power to will and to do 
that which is right and pleasing to God. A father, 
who has the attributes of a father, cannot be partial, 
cannot be arbitrary, cannot be unjust. These are 
the attributes of a tyrant, and not of a father. He 
who attributes such actions to God, makes him a 
tyrant, and not a Father. It is possible for mankind 
to entertain such opinions of God, and still worship 
him as God. The heathen worshipped just such 
gods. And their piety differed from true piety, just 
as much as their gods differed from the true God. 
Fear must predominate in all such worship. There 
cannot be full confidence, and, of course, not entire 
surrender of affection. 

Our Saviour has given a form of prayer, to be used 
indiscriminately by all mankind, which recognizes the 
paternal character of God. All are taught to pray, 
1 Our Father who art in heaven." Now this prayer, 
to be sincerely used, must be accompanied by the 
conviction that it corresponds to facts, and that God 
is the Father of all, in the sense of making the best 
possible provision for their moral welfare. 

God is not a Father to the non-elect, from whom 
he withholds that agency which is necessary to re- 
store their nature to that condition in which it is 
possible for them to will and to do that which is 
pleasing to him. Those alone have a Father who 
are reinstated in this condition. The rest are or- 
phans and outcasts. They have a Creator and a 
Sovereign, but not a Father. He has withheld from 
them the highest manifestation of parental care, the 
power to will and to do that which is right. 

Those who maintain God's sovereignty, in this 



154 DOCTRINES. 

sense of arbitrary election, must do so at the expense 
of his paternal character, and render the use of the 
Lord's prayer by the non-elect impossible or insin- 
cere. A good father does nothing on the ground of 
mere sovereignty and arbitrary will. He is always 
moved by reason, by justice, and by love. 

They cannot regard God as a Father, who believe 
the heathen, from whom God has been pleased to 
withhold a supernatural revelation, to be in a state of 
inevitable perdition on account of this neglect. Their 
ultimate moral welfare is of course wholly neglected. 
No man can deny that God might have given all 
mankind a miraculous revelation, if he had chosen to 
do so. If a miraculous revelation were indispensable 
to fit them for the happiness of the future world, they 
could not be justly excluded from that happiness, be- 
cause God neglected to give them a revelation. God 
is not a Father to the heathen, in the highest sense, if 
he withholds from them that which is indispensable 
to their highest welfare. 

It is not inconsistent with God's paternal char- 
acter to give his children different degrees of light, 
provided that each is held accountable only for the 
light which he has, and provided, moreover, that all 
have sufficient light and liberty to enable them to 
secure the highest end of their being. But to create 
beings immortal and responsible, and then withhold 
from them the light and liberty which are necessary 
to enable them to meet that responsibility, is wholly 
inconsistent with the paternal character. 

They cannot regard God as a Father, who main- 
tain that the special influence of his Spirit is necessary 
to fit the soul for future happiness, and that he with- 



PATERNITY OF GOD. 



155 



holds it from any individual of the human race. If 
the theory of religion be true at all, then the highest 
end of man is religious perfection, obedience to God, 
virtue, holiness. God, as a Father, is bound to pro- 
vide that the attainment of this perfection shall be 
within the power of all. Human nature, just as God 
makes it now, is capable of attaining this spiritual 
perfection, or it is not. If it is not, then God has 
not done a parent's part in the very construction of 
our natures. He has not provided for our highest 
welfare by making our faculties commensurate with 
the highest end of our being. If by the superadded 
influences of his Spirit, granted to a portion of man- 
kind, he supplies this constitutional defect of our 
nature, to them he is a Father, by doing precisely 
what a fatherly care demands. But to the rest he is 
not a Father. He has abandoned them to a spiritual 
orphanage. They have a Creator, a Ruler, an arbi- 
trary Sovereign, but not a Father. They cannot 
pray, " Our Father who art in heaven." Their Father 
has denied them those original endowments which 
are the conditions and the instruments of their 
highest welfare. Heaven, the home of God's chil- 
dren, is shut against them for ever. 

If human nature, just as God now makes it, is 
capable of attaining that spiritual excellence which 
fits it for heaven, the Spirit of God, or Divine in- 
fluence, must be interpreted to mean something 
which is granted to all, or is at least accessible to 
all. It cannot be an arbitrary or a partial gift. 

In opposition to all these inconsistent appearances, 
in contradiction to all these hypotheses, Jesus uni- 
formly inculcated the doctrine of the universal pater- 



156 DOCTRINES. 

nity of God, — that he is a Father to all. To him, the 
spiritual welfare of the humblest of the human race is 
infinitely precious. " Their angels do always behold 
the face of my Father which is in heaven." " Even 
so, it is not the will of my Father which is in heaven, 
that one of these little ones should perish." It is a 
truth of unspeakable importance, but one which 
mankind are exceedingly apt to distrust or forget. 
The want of this conviction gives occasion to some 
of arrogance and oppression, and to some of re- 
pining and despair. It is necessary to all, as the 
ground of confidence, of steadfastness, and fidelity. 

In the parable of which the text makes a part, 
there are clear implications which go far to obviate 
and explain away the difficulties with which the 
doctrine of God's paternal character has been en- 
cumbered. 

In the first place, in relation to free agency. The 
phenomena which seem to be inconsistent with the 
paternal character of God spring chiefly from the 
endowment of free agency. There are reasons for 
believing that the moral disorders of the world owe 
their being not to any deficiency of power, wisdom, 
or benevolence on the part of God, but arise from the 
intrinsic nature of free agency itself This appears 
from the fact, that, in the grand operations of physi- 
cal causation, the results are unerring, and know no 
miscarriage or defeat. The earth for countless ages 
has revolved round the sun with mathematical pre- 
cision. The seasons return in their primitive order, 
the vegetable creation observes its original laws. 
The irrational animals obey their instincts, by which 
the individual and the species are preserved. 






PATERNITY OF GOD. 157 

Disorder begins when we ascend to the sphere of 
human beings, into which a new element is intro- 
duced, that of free agency. There too we find law, 
but likewise aberration from law; there we first 
find sin, and suffering, which is the consequence of 
sin. 

Now since God is omnipotent, as well as omnis- 
cient, we cannot suppose that it is in consequence 
•of any want of power or wisdom on the part of God, 
that there should be moral disorder in the life and 
conduct of man. His omnipotence might have con- 
trolled the human will, in all cases, as easily, to say 
the least, as he controls the motions of the physical 
universe. But that uniform control, producing uni- 
formity of action, ivould, by the very conditions of 
the case, have destroyed free will 

Since, then, disorder begins when free agency is 
introduced, we have reason to believe that this dis- 
order is incidental to free agency, and to that lati- 
tude of action which free agency requires. Virtue 
consists in the free choice of good, when evil was 
equally in our power. Where the balance must be 
so exact between good and evil, it is to be expected 
that a being of imperfect wisdom and self-control 
will sometimes choose wrong. Any restraint which 
would take away the possibility of sin would de- 
stroy all merit in right choice. An immediate, 
mechanical force, exerted on the will of man, such 
as God exercises on the physical universe, would 
destroy all moral character in the volition produced. 
We have reason, then, to conclude that the moral ev i 
there is in the universe is the price which moral beings 
pay for the moral good, the virtue and holiness, there are 
14 



158 DOCTRINES. 

in it. We cannot have one without some measure 
of the other. Man is made capable of sin, not that 
he may sin, and, forming a habit of sin, may settle 
down into a sinful character, but rather that his good 
actions should have merit in them. Care is rather 
taken that he should not settle into habits of sin, by 
the suffering which follows, and he is induced to 
settle in habits of virtue by the happiness it causes. 

Although, then, God exercises no immediate or 
mechanical control over the will of man, it does not 
follow that he has left the human mind lawless and 
uncontrolled. He governs it still, but by laws which 
are adapted to its nature and are consistent with 
moral freedom. The character is not fixed, either in 
good or evil, by one act. It is capable of change, of 
being warned by experience and encouraged by en- 
joyment, or, in other words, capable of the discipline 
of rewards and punishments. This is the very dis- 
cipline which is going on in this life. 

The existence, then, of moral evil in the world, is 
not inconsistent with the paternal character of God. 
It is incident to the freedom of the human will, to 
that endowment by which man is raised above the 
irrational animals and assimilated to God. And man 
is made free, not that he may do evil, but that he 
may freely and meritoriously do good. All that is 
good in his choice is so much absolute gain, and the 
evil is not without remedy, for God has made man 
capable of repentance and reformation, and the chief 
instrument in bringing about that repentance and 
reformation is the suffering which he has made to 
be consequent on sin. 

The fundamental truths relating to this subject 



PATERNITY OF GOD. 159 

are shadowed forth in the parable from which the 
text is taken. A man has an hundred sheep, and one 
of them wanders away. The wandering away is 
incidental to the nature of a sheep. It is an animal, 
and not a tree or a stone. It is capable of loco- 
motion, but not endowed with mind and guided by 
reason, and therefore liable to go astray. But there 
is a Shepherd to seek it out and bring it back. So it 
is incident to the free will of man, not being guided 
by perfect wisdom and perfect self-control, to go 
wrong. But the discipline is already appointed and 
arranged by the great Shepherd to bring him back. 

Bat it maybe said, Are not the heathen in a state 
of orphanage? Is their moral welfare cared for? 
Is the highest good of their being within their 
power of attainment ? Our Saviour tells us, Yes. 
" Many shall come from the East and from the 
West, from the North and from the South, and sit 
down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the 
kingdom of heaven." And the reason is given by 
Peter : " Of a truth I perceive that God is no re- 
specter of persons, but in every nation he that fear- 
eth God and worketh righteousness is accepted 
with him." 

The declaration of Christ is equivalent to the as- 
sertion, that the happiness of the future world is 
within the attainment of all mankind. In other 
words, God is a Father to all, in providing for their 
highest welfare. The sentence quoted from Peter's 
speech to Cornelius involves the position, that the 
difference between the condition of man with and 
without a revelation is of the enjoyment of more or 
less light, not of the possibility or impossibility of 



160 DOCTRINES. 

final salvation. The difference between the light of 
nature and revelation is in quantity, not quality ; the 
truths made known by them are not different, but 
the same, only with greater or less amount of clear- 
ness and evidence. The heathen knows enough 
of God to constitute a sufficient motive of moral 
action, and of duty to know what is pleasing or 
displeasing to God. In the language of Paul, " He 
hath not left himself without witness to any nation." 
" For the invisible things of him are clearly seen, 
being understood by the things that are made, even 
his eternal power and godhead." His will is made 
known to them in the law of conscience. As the 
same Apostle says, " For when the Gentiles, which 
have not the law, do by nature the things contained 
in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto 
themselves; which show the work of the law written 
in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, 
and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else 
excusing, one another." 

It may be objected to this, that the heathen go 
into a future state in a lower spiritual condition, on 
an average, than those who have enjoyed a miracu- 
lous revelation, and are of course prepared for a less 
degree of enjoyment. It may be answered, that the 
parable of the talents precisely covers the case. 
" From those to whom much is given, much shall be 
required." He who has gained two talents with the 
original gift of two talents, is just as meritorious as 
he who had received five talents and had gained five 
talents more. Both are bidden welcome to the joy 
of their Lord. 

In estimating the prospects of the heathen in the 



PATERNITY OF GOD. 161 

future world, we are to take into view the fact, that 
the actual spiritual condition of the soul is not to be 
taken as the measure of personal merit. Spiritual 
condition is absolute, merit is relative, and is meas- 
ured not by results alone, but by endowments and 
opportunities. Endowments and opportunities dU 
minish the merit of the very excellence they enable a 
man to attain. In a heathen, a much lower degree 
of excellence may be more meritorious than a much 
higher one under Christian light and influences. Soc- 
rates may have been more meritorious in the sight 
of God than a majority of Christians, because he 
reached a sublime height of virtue under the mere 
light of nature. 

So, on the same principle, God is our example, 
and we are commanded to be " followers of God, as 
dear children," and to "be perfect, as our Father 
who is in heaven is perfect"; but he cannot justly 
be made our measure, for he is infinite and we are 
finite. He is omniscient and self-sufficient. He is 
incapable of temptation. He cannot err and cannot 
sin. We commence our career at nothing, in utter 
weakness and ignorance, and let our progress be 
never so direct and never so rapid, we cannot have 
advanced far toward perfection before we are over- 
taken by death. In the mean time, we are constantly 
liable to error and sin. 

So Christ is our pattern, and we are commanded 
to walk in his footsteps, but he is not our measure. 
If he were, as some suppose, an incarnate, pre-exist- 
ent spirit, and brought to this world the experience 
and the wisdom of other worlds and countless ages, 
he was not in the category of humanity, and the 
14* 



162 DOCTRINES. 

temptations to which humanity is exposed were no 
temptations to him. They were not proportioned to 
his strength. If he were simply human at his birth, 
the endowments he received at his baptism, to fit 
him for his great office, lifted him out of the category 
of mere humanity, in respect to temptation, just as 
much as a pre-existence. If the words of the New 
Testament' are reliable as history, after this period 
he had a degree of knowledge which is incompatible 
with the strength of temptation by which ordinary 
men are beset. What to us, in regard to God, is 
faith, to him was certainty. We believe in God ; he 
knew God. To us God's presence is insensible ; to 
him it was sensible. To us the existence of a spiritual 
world is a matter of rational probability ; to him it 
was a present reality. We cannot see into futurity. 
A dark veil conceals from us all coming events, and 
all beyond the grave is wrapt in impenetrable obscu- 
rity. He saw into futurity and was aware of ap- 
proaching events, and that tomb which is to our eye 
an everlasting prison, when he was about to enter 
it, was to surrender him on the third day to an im- 
mortal life. 

Possessing such knowledge, sustained by such 
aids, and operated on by such motives, he lived a 
life on earth more divine than human. But the 
absolute merit of that life is a totally different thing 
from its perfection. That none of his followers have 
attained to it, does not exclude them from his king- 
dom and a share in his glory, because they too may 
have lived according to the measure of their light. 
No more ought the deficiencies of the heathen world 
to shut them out of the future happiness bestowed 



PATERNITY OF GOD. 163 

on Christians, if those deficiencies have been occa- 
sioned, not by their unfaithfulness to their light, but 
the imperfection of the light itself. 

Beware, then, how ye despise one of these little 
ones, even the heathen, whom ye imagine to be the 
orphans of God. " It is not the will of your Heav- 
enly Father that one of these little ones should 
perish." He who watches the sparrow's fall, and 
clothes the lilies of the field, does not neglect the 
spiritual interests of those whom he has made im- 
mortal. There is a light, emanating from the very 
centre of the Divinity, which enlighteneth every man 
that cometh into the world. God has made every 
human being in his own image ; that image makes 
every human being a child of God, gives him spirit- 
ual wants and interests, which he who created them 
is bound by paternal obligations to supply. 

To every human being God reveals himself in 
his works, in the deductions of reason, in the admo- 
nitions of conscience. Every human being feels him- 
self to be in a state of probation. He who does what 
he knows to be right, is as confident as he is of his 
own existence that he secures the approbation of 
God. And he who does wrong is equally impressed 
with the conviction, that he did not escape the notice 
of the All-seeing Eye, and somewhere, in time or 
eternity, that wrong shall return to him, and no 
power can deliver him from the dreadful expiation. 
To lead him to good, and to restrain him from evil, 
his first years are passed under the plastic discipline 
of parental affection. A watchfulness grows out of 
it, rendered more careful by the motives of interest, 
because, if the child goes wrong, the parent is the 



164 DOCTRINES. 

first to suffer. Then comes the influence of public 
opinion, or the universal conscience of the whole 
community; then comes the moral education of 
universal language, which is the natural Scripture 
of the human race, written by that universal inspira- 
tion which has given all men understanding. These 
are the indisputable evidences of God's parental care 
of the obscurest individual of the human race. 



DISCOURSE XI. 



THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 

ASK, AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU ; SEEK, AND YE SHALL^IND ; 
KNOCK, AND IT SHALL BE OPENED UNTO YOU ! FOR EVERY 
ONE THAT ASKETH RECEIVETH ; AND HE THAT SEEKETH 
FINDETH ; AND TO HIM THAT KNOCKETH, IT SHALL BE 
OPENED. OR WHAT MAN IS THERE OF YOU, WHOM IF HIS 
SON ASK BREAD, WILL HE GIVE HIM A STONE 1 OR IF HE ASK 
A FISH, WILL HE GIVE HIM A SERPENT ? IF YE THEN, BEING 
EVIL, KNOW HOW TO GIVE GOOD GIFTS UNTO YOUR CHIL- 
DREN, HOW MUCH MORE SHALL YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN 
HEAVEN GIVE GOOD THINGS TO THEM THAT ASK HIM 1 — 

Matthew vii. 7-11. 

In immediate connection with the paternity of 
God, Jesus taught the doctrine of the duty and the 
efficacy of prayer. One is the natural consequence 
of the other. If we are the children of God, and God 
has a Father's heart, he must hear and answer our 
prayers. Christ did not stop here. He encourages 
us to use importunity in our prayers. " And he spake 
a parable unto them, to this end, that men ought 
always to pray and not to faint ; saying, There was 
in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither 
regarded man. And there was a widow in that 
city ; and she came to him, saying, Avenge me 
of mine adversary. And he would not for a while ; 



166 DOCTRINES. 

but afterwards he said within himself, Though I fear 
not God, nor regard man, yet, because this widow 
troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual 
coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear 
what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God 
avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto 
him ? I tell you, that he will avenge them speedily." 

The facts here are specific, but the conclusions to 
be derived from them are universal. The principle 
involved in the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer is, 
in philosophical language, this. Religion is a sub- 
jective, as well as objective reality. Not only are 
there objects out of us to which religion refers, but 
there are faculties within us which correspond to 
those outward objects, and those outward objects 
are intended to bring into action those internal facul- 
ties, and by their joint operation human happiness 
and perfection are promoted. 

In other words, God has given to man a peculiar 
constitution; he has bestowed on him a religious 
nature, which leads and enables him to recognize 
the existence of God, to act with reference to him, and 
to be benefited by such action. To the inferior ani- 
mals, no such nature or faculties have been granted. 
God takes care of them without their knowing it. 
They know nothing of God, and are never called on 
to act in reference to him. God gives them imme- 
diately all the enjoyment of which their natures are 
capable, and nothing that they can intelligently do 
will add to their satisfaction. 

But in the constitution of man, God has added to 
a mere animal constitution an intellectual, a moral 
and religious nature. God has so constituted man 



THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 167 

as to have a conscious relation to himself. Reason 
teaches every man that there is a God, for reason 
teaches that there cannot be an effect without a 
cause ; and as we are created, we must needs have a 
Creator. Conscience makes us aware, not only that 
there is a God, but that he sustains a near and per- 
sonal relation to us. We could not distinguish good 
from evil, did not God give us the faculty of per- 
ceiving the difference, any more than we could dis- 
tinguish colors without eyes. With the conscious- 
ness of freedom, we feel bound to choose the good 
and refuse the evil. If we do otherwise, we feel that 
we are not only unwise and imprudent, but that 
we are guilty in the sight of God. We cannot sep- 
arate conscience from God. We cannot do right 
without feeling that God approves us, nor wrong 
without feeling that we have rendered ourselves ob- 
noxious to his displeasure. 

The persuasion that there is a God, is accompa- 
nied by the conviction that he is a person, to whom 
we sustain personal relations. Personal relations are 
always attended by feeling and emotion. This is a 
law of our nature. We cannot think on God, with- 
out some degree of emotion. Emotion, when it 
rises to a certain degree of intensity, demands ex- 
pression, and breaks out into words and actions. 

Hence the universality of worship. Hence the fact, 
that there has been no tribe nor nation discovered 
on the face of the earth, without some form of re- 
ligion, without some mode of expressing their feelings 
to that Power whom their reason compels them to 
regard as the Author of all things. As it is beauti- 
fully expressed by Paul, in his speech to the idola- 



168 DOCTRINES. 

ters of Lycaonia, " He left not himself without wit- 
ness, in that he did good, and gave them rain from 
heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with 
food and gladness." 

Worship, then, is natural, instinctive, universal, 
because God has made man a religious being, and 
revealed himself to him through creation and provi- 
dence. One branch of worship is prayer. And this 
is just as instinctive as adoration and thanksgiving. 
We naturally ask of God that which we intensely 
desire. 

There is a striking instance of this in the history 
of Polybius, a Greek and a heathen, who lived 
about two hundred years before Christ. He is 
writing an account of the invasion of Italy by Han- 
nibal. That general had passed the Alps, and was 
wholly surrounded by his foes. Nothing remained 
for him and his army but conquest or death. 

In order to impress the fact upon his soldiers, and 
to make them fight with desperation, he devised the 
following contrivance, which was so shocking, so 
cruel and barbarous, that it seems scarcely credible 
in a Christian land, and in this age of comparative 
civilization and humanity. 

" But Hannibal and Publius, as they approached 
each other, endeavored severally to animate their 
troops by all the motives which the present conjunc- 
ture suggested to them. Upon this occasion, Han- 
nibal contrived the following expedient. Having 
assembled all the forces, he brought before them the 
young prisoners, whom he had taken among those 
barbarians which had disturbed his march across the 
Alps. With a view to the design which he now put 



THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 169 

in practice, he had before given orders that these 
wretches should be treated with the last severity. 
They were loaded with heavy chains, their bodies 
were emaciated with hunger, and mangled with 
blows and stripes. In this condition he now placed 
them in the midst of the assembly, and threw before 
them some suits of Gallic armor, such as their kings 
were accustomed to wear when they engaged in sin- 
gle combat. He ordered some horses also to be set 
before them, and military habits that were very rich 
and splendid. He then demanded of the young 
men, which of them were willing to try their fate 
in arms against each other, on condition that the 
conqueror should possess those spoils that were be- 
fore their eyes, while the vanquished should be re- 
leased by death from all his miseries. The captives 
with one consent cried out, and testified the utmost 
eagerness to engage. Hannibal then commanded 
that lots should be cast among them, and that those 
two upon whom the lot should fall should take the 
arms that were before them, and begin the combat. 
When the prisoners heard these orders, they extended 
their hands towards the heavens, and every one most 
fervently implored the gods that the lot to fight might 
be his own" 

Here was exhibited, by these poor savages, the 
genuine, inherent, unsophisticated religious instinct 
of human nature ; those outstretched arms, expressed 
the conviction, first, that there is an intelligent Power 
above us, by whom the universe is controlled, from 
the greatest to the minutest events, and, secondly, that 
that Power is accessible to prayer. The question is, 
Does this universal instinct correspond to facts, or is 
15 



170 DOCTRINES. 

it a mere superstition, based on no solid facts of 
God's government of the universe ? Do those who 
pray obtain anything more than those who neglect 
it altogether ? Jesus Christ, as our authoritative 
teacher, has decided this in the affirmative. " He 
that asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; 
and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." 

There is a natural probability that prayers are 
availing, arising from the strength and universality 
of the instinct of prayer. As God is the creator of 
all things, he must have created this instinct in man. 
All other instincts in man correspond to realities, A 
God of truth could not have constituted the universe 
in any other way than in correspondence with the 
natural instincts of man. If prayers are unavailing, 
then the instinct of prayer corresponds to no reality, 
and is in its nature deceptive. It is at least wholly 
useless, it is a superfluity, not to say a mockery of 
human helplessness. It is a false representation of 
man's relation to God, and the natural belief in the 
efficacy of prayer, on which the act of prayer is 
founded, is a misconception, of which God is the 
author. 

The ground upon which Christ himself puts it is 
in itself a highly probable ground, independently of 
his authority, and that is, God's paternal relation to 
man. God is proved to be the Father, and man the 
child, by the fact that everything in the world is 
subordinated to human good. Human happiness is 
the end, and all outward things and events are the 
means. God., of course, must be predisposed to grant 
the desires of his children, inasmuch as the gratifica- 
tion of a desire produces happiness, and God desires 
human happiness. 






THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 171 

But then there must evidently be a limit to this, 
for, man's knowledge being finite, he cannot know 
what will be for his good on the whole. God must 
refuse to grant man's requests sometimes, for his own 
good, and hence the deficiency of evidence that pray- 
ers are efficacious, arising from the necessity there is 
of denying a large part, perhaps a great majority, of 
human petitions. 

Besides, each human being does not inhabit the 
world alone. The granting of his petition may in- 
jure another. The rain for which one man prays, 
to perfect his harvest, may destroy the harvest of 
another, which is ready to be gathered. It may still 
be to him a religious and a beneficial act to pray for 
rain, though his request be denied, if he subjoins, 
as did the Saviour, on making a specific petition, 
" Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done." 

Hence the necessity of general laws. God must 
govern the universe by a plan, which is best on the 
whole, and which adjusts conflicting interests as far 
as they can be adjusted. The chance that any spe- 
cific desire of man shall coincide with God's general 
plan is small, and hence the apparent inefficacy of 
specific petitions. 

God governs the universe by fixed and uniform 
laws, not only for the sake of order, but for human 
good, to be the basis of human expectation and con- 
duct. Uniformity of law is the ground of all human 
action. It is the indispensable condition of all hu- 
man plans, enterprises, and industry. The fulfilment 
of every human desire would break up this order, and 
bring everything into disorder and confusion. 

We cannot have both uniform law and special in- 



172 DOCTRINES. 

terposition, or, at any rate, special interposition must 
intervene very rarely, or the general law will be de- 
stroyed. But the doctrine of law carried to ex- 
tremes, so as to exclude all special interposition, 
ends in fatalism, chills all piety, and undermines 
all religion. The doctrine of special interference, 
on the other hand, when carried to extremes, ends 
in the weakest and most debasing superstition. 

But it does not follow that a prayer is lost, and 
of none effect, because its petition is not granted. 
It may be that God has so constituted us, that, even 
when the request is denied, the very act of prayer 
may beget in us resignation to his will, and fortitude 
to bear the evil from which we pray to be delivered, 
or the privation of the good we hoped to obtain. 

Thus our Saviour himself, when his crucifixion 
approached, prayed that the bitter cup might pass 
from him. But that request could not be granted, 
because it was a part of the Divine plan that the 
Messiah should suffer and rise from the dead. Yet 
the prayer in the garden was not lost. It contained 
a petition for resignation, — " Nevertheless, not as I 
will, but as thou wilt " ; and the prayer was an- 
swered, the resignation came. He rose up from that 
prayer changed, calmed, and strengthened. Before he 
was in a state of consternation and distress. " He 
was sore amazed and in an agony." After that 
prayer, the distress and the consternation are mas- 
tered, and from that moment till he expired upon 
the cross he never faltered for an instant, or fell off 
from that sublime self-possession which became the 
martyr to the truth and the Saviour of the world. 

This opens a wide sphere for the agency of 



THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 173 

prayer, without interfering in the concatenation of 
physical causes, in changing the spiritual condition of 
the worshipper himself. Every human soul is in 
itself a cause, an independent agent, capable of 
originating a train of action, and a series of conse- 
quences. It is capable, moreover, of determining the 
moral character of that train of action. It is capable, 
too, of exerting a transforming power over itself of 
becoming pure in thought, word, and deed, or evil, 
corrupt, and malignant. 

As each human being is an original agent, and 
puts in operation a wide-spreading combination and 
series of causes, the difference of influence upon 
human affairs exerted by one mind may be im- 
mense, either for good or evil. It has been immense, 
beyond thought or computation. 

Now, by the constitution which God has given to 
man, the most powerful spiritual influence which a 
man can exert upon himself is by the very act of 
prayer. An act of prayer is necessarily an act of 
faith, " for he that cometh unto God must believe 
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that 
diligently seek him." And that act strengthens the 
principle from which it proceeds. In the act of 
prayer, God becomes a present reality, just in pro- 
portion to the fervor with which we call upon him. 
It is a realization of the presence of God, and this 
constitutes the chief difference between a religious 
and an irreligious man. 

The religious man does not confine his regard to 

God to the act of prayer. It enters into other things. 

The Father of spirits is not only the Father of the 

soul, accessible to its approaches at all times, and 

15* 



174 DOCTRINES. 

ministering immediately to its spiritual wants, but 
he is the physical and moral Governor of the uni- 
verse, and he administers all things according to 
that law which he has written on the soul of man. 
Such is the harmonious structure of the universe, 
that nothing can permanently prosper which breaks 
God's fundamental laws. He who maintains com- 
munion with God will maintain a sense of his pres- 
ence, and a proportionate regard for his law. He 
will be saved from those rash acts and enterprises 
by which men bring ruin and destruction on them- 
selves. He will choose such ends and objects as 
are consistent with God's government, and of course 
are attainable in the ordinary course of his provi- 
dence, and will be productive of happiness. 

Hence it is said in the Scriptures, " The fear of 
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and the con- 
summation, as well as the cause, of the depravity 
of the wicked man is, that God is not in all his 
thoughts. 

So that the profitableness of religious worship is 
not only an ultimate spiritual fact, but it can be jus- 
tified on philosophical principles. It is not only prac- 
tically beneficial, but we can see the reason why it 
is so. It is so because God has so willed it, and 
made man by nature a religious being. 

Another illustration which we have of the doctrine 
of the efficacy of prayer, in the teachings of Jesus, 
is in the parable of the Pharisee and publican. 
" Two men went up into the temple to pray ; the 
one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The 
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, 
I thank thee that I am not as other men are 



THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 175 

I fast twice in the week ; I give tithes of all that 
I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, 
would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, 
but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful 
to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to 
his house justified rather than the other" 

Here, then, is a most important fact, bearing upon 
the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer. The publican 
went down to his house justified. From which the 
general law is deduced, that the sincere and humble 
prayer of the penitent brings justification, that is, 
restores peace to the troubled conscience, and recon- 
ciles the sinner to God, rekindles his hope of his 
favor, and alienates the heart from sin and its temp- 
tations. 

There is no more important truth than this in the 
whole compass of religious doctrine. Sinfulness is 
universal. No man liveth and sinneth not. Is sin 
an ultimate and irremediable fall ? Is there no re- 
covery from its estrangement ? Is there no restora- 
tion ? Is there nothing that man can do to regain 
his lost tranquillity ? Must the future always be 
clouded with gloomy anticipations? His case, 
thank God, is not so desperate. A remedy is ap- 
pointed in penitence and prayer. Sinful man can 
be forgiven, and know that he is forgiven. If he 
be truly penitent, and come to God in the true spirit 
of the publican, " God be merciful to me a sinner," 
he shall go down to his house justified, restored to 
inward tranquillity and a sense of peace with God. 

Such prayer is experimentally efficacious, and it 
shows that religion is a subjective, as well as an ob- 
jective reality. Man is made for religion, and relig- 



176 DOCTRINES. 

ion is made for man. Such experience shows that 
God is a merciful being. " He will not always chide, 
neither will he keep his anger for ever. Like as a 
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
that fear him ; for he knoweth our frame, and re- 
membereth that we are dust." 

The efficacy of prayer may be brought home to our 
constant experience. The Saviour has promised the 
Holy Spirit to them that ask him. This seems to be a 
vague, mysterious, indefinite, and, to some, unintelli- 
gible promise. But is it not interpreted to us every 
Lord's day, when we assemble for worship? Those 
who come here for religious purposes get the spirit- 
ual blessing they seek. They go from this place in 
a different frame of mind from that in which they 
would have been if they had stayed away, or been 
engaged in secular pursuits, in worldly literature, or 
trifling conversation. Their souls have breathed a 
freer, a more congenial, and a more invigorating at- 
mosphere. 

But suppose there were no voice of prayer, or 
hymn of praise, alternating with the voice of instruc- 
tion, and the service were to degenerate into a mere 
theological lecture, or declamatory exhortation, would 
not the service be bereaved of its unction, — its edi- 
fying, consoling, and strengthening power? Would 
not the most worldly and unspiritual person who 
comes here go away unsatisfied, defrauded, disap- 
pointed ? Behold, then, the efficacy of prayer, and 
consider how true it is, that God always gives the 
Holy Spirit to them who ask him. 

There is another experimental proof, which is ex- 
hibited in each passing generation of mankind. 



THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 177 

Worship takes place under even more impressive 
circumstances than in the house of prayer. It is at 
the domestic altar. There devotion is aided by the 
sympathies of natural affection, and the alternations 
of those joys and griefs, which the stranger inter- 
meddleth not with. Those joys and sorrows lay 
open the heart to good impressions, bring it into the 
low depths of humiliation where the penitential 
psalm finds a touching propriety, or elevates it to 
that attitude of cheerfulness in which it responds to 
the joyful summons, " Praise ye the Lord." 

It is morally impossible that such religious culture 
should fail of its object. We should scarcely believe 
that there was a God, if he failed to pour down his 
blessings where they are so constantly and so assid- 
uously invoked. His promise never fails ; his word 
that has gone forth shall never return to him void. 
Nothing is more certain, than that such spiritual 
sowing shall reap a harvest of an hundred fold. It is 
thus, by long and patient years of waiting on God, 
of continual and unwearied supplication, that piety 
becomes hereditary, and whole families are gathered 
into the household of Heaven. 

Finally, we are directed and encouraged, not only 
to pray, but to pray to God in the name of Christ. 
" Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, 
he will give it unto you." Is not this fanciful or 
fanatical? Was not God as accessible to prayer 
before the advent of Christ as he has been since ? 
Would he deny to a sincere prayer a petition not 
made in the name of Christ, which he would have 
granted if the request had been made in that name ? 
What has praying in the name of Christ to do with 



178 DOCTRINES. 

the efficacy of prayer ? Can any such distinction be 
sustained on philosophical principles ? 

This question finds its answer in the considera- 
tions already brought forward. I have already said, 
that those petitions only can be granted, which are 
in accordance with the moral laws of God's universe. 
The character, the teaching, and the whole purpose 
of Christ and his religion, were in exact accordance 
with the principles of God's administration of the 
universe. While our petitions are within the scope 
of Christ's spirit, they will be in coincidence with 
God's purposes, and will be such as God can con- 
sistently grant. 

If they are asked in Christ's spirit, then the peti- 
tioner is in a proper moral condition to receive them 
without injury, if they are temporal blessings ; and if 
they are spiritual blessings, they will be received of 
course ; for the very fact that they are strongly de- 
sired, and asked for in faith, will bring them in all 
their abundance into the soul . 

It is thus that the prayers of the Christian Church 
have been availing in all ages, and brought down 
the blessings of God upon the world. It is thus that 
the promise of Christ has been realized, " If two of 
you shall agree on earth as touching anything that 
they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my 
Father which is in heaven. For where two or three 
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the 
midst of them." 



DISCOURSE XII. 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 

AND HE AROSE, AND CAME TO HIS FATHER : BUT WHEN HE 
WAS YET A GREAT WAY OFF, HIS FATHER SAW HIM, AND 
HAD COMPASSION, AND' RAN, AND FELL ON HIS NECK, AND 

kissed him. — Luke XV. 20. 

One of the first facts with which consciousness 
makes us acquainted is, that we are free agents liv- 
ing' under law. Such is our imperfection, that almost 
simultaneously with the knowledge of a law, and of 
our own free agency, we become aware that we have 
broken that laiv, and are sinners. That consciousness 
is the source to us of unhappiness. It diminishes, 
not only our enjoyment, but our capacity of enjoy- 
ment. 

That law we do not conceive of as merely an ab- 
straction, towards which we can have no other feel- 
ing than simple regret. We instinctively refer the 
law to a lawgiver, with whom we have a personal 
relation. We have not only broken a law, but we 
have offended a person. We feel that we are not 
only chargeable with folly, but we are guilty in the 
sight of God. Our feelings towards him are modi- 
fied by a sense of guilt. We fear his displeasure. 



180 DOCTRINES. 

We dread the penalty he may rightfully inflict. The 
consciousness of sin is universal, and it is the great 
evil of this world. Of all the causes of unhappiness, 
this is the greatest. It weighs down the spirits, it 
destroys the peace, it subdues the courage, it clouds 
the prospects of mankind. 

We are likewise conscious of penitence. We are 
filled with humiliation and regret. We pray to God 
to forgive us. But does he forgive us ? can he forgive 
us ? When we offend a friend, and repent and ask 
his forgiveness, we may receive from him personal 
assurance that we are forgiven. Our minds are re- 
lieved; our peace is restored ; the record is, as it 
were, blotted out. 

But how shall we receive such an assurance of 
pardon from God, " whom no man hath seen or can 
see," let our penitence have been never so sincere ? 
God is not a visible person whom we may approach. 
To our prayer he makes no audible response. There 
is no visible smile, assuring us that we are restored. 
There is no pressure of the hand, conveying to us the 
persuasion, that there is harmony once more. I do 
not say too much when I affirm that the assurance 
of the Divine pardon is the deepest want of the 
human heart. The Christian recites, perhaps, the 
greatest article of his creed, when he says, " I believe 
in the forgiveness of sins." The preciousness of the 
Gospel is centred in this, that it professes to be a 
message from that God whose form we have never 
seen, whose voice we have never heard, assuring us 
that the penitent are forgiven, their sins are blotted 
out, and their transgressions are remembered no 
more. 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 181 

I propose to consider to-day what Christ has 
taught us, first, concerning the certainty of the for- 
giveness of sins ; secondly, the conditions of the Di- 
vine pardon ; and, thirdly, its assurance. Can God 
forgive us ? On what conditions will he forgive us ? 
Can we have any assurance that he has forgiven us ? 

I have already said, that the teachings of nature 
on this subject are exceedingly obscure. Some inti- 
mations are given us, perhaps, in our physical con- 
stitution. We violate, through ignorance or perver- 
sity, the laws of health. We wound or injure our 
bodies. By our imprudence we bring on us diseases. 
God's merciful character is certainly manifested 
in the remedial and healing process which at once 
commences. The broken bone immediately begins 
a special and extraordinary action of reunion. It is 
discovered by physiologists, that what appear to be 
acute diseases are rather efforts of nature to throw 
off some poison taken into the system, or to remedy 
some action, which, if permitted to proceed, would 
end in the destruction of life itself. 

God has, in his infinite mercy, provided a restora- 
tive power in nature itself, so that suffering is often 
a warning as well as a remedy, to persuade us to 
retrace our steps into the path of duty, when we 
have forsaken it. Indeed, his patience and long- 
suffering towards us are most affecting to contem- 
plate. The deepest researches into physiology end 
in adopting the language of the Psalmist : " The 
Lord is good to all, his tender mercies are over all 
his works. He will not always chide, neither will 
he keep his anger for ever." 

Again, we have some intimations of what God is, 
16 



182 DOCTRINES. 

in the structure of our own minds. It is the postulate 
of the religion of nature, as well as revelation, that 
" we are made in the image of God." We can con- 
ceive of perfection in no other sense than that which 
seems to us to be perfection. Mercy is a human 
attribute, without which no exalted human excel- 
lence can subsist. In man, it is considered not only 
hard-hearted and cruel, but savage and inhuman, not 
to forgive a penitent offender, when he asks our for- 
giveness. And the reasonable ground of this is, our 
common imperfection, our universal liability to err 
and to do wrong. It is mainly the same reason 
which in Scripture is said to prompt the Divine 
compassion : " For he knoweth our frame, and re- 
membereth that we are dust." 

In the Scriptures of the Old Testament, the for- 
giveness of sins is abundantly declared. Amidst the 
fire and smoke of Sinai, the mercy of God is not 
forgotten. " And the Lord passed by him and pro- 
claimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness 
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 
iniquity and transgression and sin" The same doc- 
trine is promulgated with greater emphasis in the 
eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel. " But if the wicked 
will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, 
and keep all my statutes, and do that which is law- 
ful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 
All his transgressions that he hath committed, they 
shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness 
that he hath done shall he live. Have I any pleasure 
at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord 
God ; and not that he should return from his ways 
and live ? " 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 183 

No promise of pardon and remission could be 
more full and absolute than this. "All his transgres- 
sions that he hath committed, they shall not be men- 
tioned unto him." They are wholly blotted out 
for ever, and are as though they never had existed. 

The same sentiment is found, with almost equal 
strength of expression in the one hundred and third 
Psalm : " The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow 
to anger and of great mercy. He will not always 
chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever. For 
as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his 
mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the 
east is from the west, so far hath he removed our 
transgressions from us." 

Thus stood the doctrine of forgiveness at the ad- 
vent of the Messiah. What modification did he 
make in it? None certainly, to obscure its dis- 
tinctness, and restrain its freedom and universality. 
The parable of the Prodigal Son confirms it all, 
and gives it the greatest emphasis. 

No greater shipwreck of every virtue can be de- 
scribed, than that which had been made by this 
miserable sinner and wretched outcast. Almost 
every virtue is described as having become extinct. 
He has forsaken all that is good, and has fallen a 
prey to all evil. He has wandered far from inno- 
cence; he has become the companion of the vile, 
and is polluted, moreover, with almost every vice. 

But all good is not extinguished. All good can- 
not be extinguished in any human bosom. Con- 
science was not destroyed ; moral sensibility was 
not dead. No man could feel the exceeding sinful- 
ness of sin more keenly than the wretched prodigal. 



184 DOCTRINES. 

No man was more fully aware of the excellence and 
the happiness of virtue. 

The freedom of the will was not lost. Not only 
was the moral discernment left, to discover what was 
good, but the power to choose it and to act in ac- 
cordance with it, was retained. The change that 
took place in him was a change of will. " I will 
arise, and go to my father." That act of will was 
decisive of his fate. 

You observe that the Saviour does not go behind 
the fact of the will. He does not say it was by the 
grace of God ; nor does he bring in any foreign 
agency. He simply says, " He came to himself." 
That " himself," the man, the essential individual, 
had always been on the side of right. His course 
of profligacy had been a species of delirium, in 
which that part of his nature had obtained the as- 
cendency which was intended to be subordinate. 
That " himself " had always been in harmony with 
the father from whom he had wandered. And as 
soon as he came to a himself," as soon as he began 
to reflect, and his real self began to act, he said, " I 
will arise, and go to my father." What he wanted 
was not re-creation, but restoration. To say that he 
wanted re-creation would have been a reproach to 
his Maker. 

The point, however, at which we are now aiming, 
is the fact of forgiveness, that the father forgave him, 
spontaneously, fully, and freely. The truth most in- 
teresting to us, which is taught by this parable, is 
the tenderness, the compassion, the generosity of the 
father's heart. " When he was yet a great way off." 
There could be no coldness, no sternness, no offended 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 185 

dignity, no wounded pride, no apprehension of en- 
dangered authority, but simply parental affection, 
the yearnings of a father's heart. There are no 
bitter reproaches ; for what father could reproach a 
son who was already crushed by the reproaches of 
his own conscience, tortured with a sense of his own 
unworthiness, and humbled by the palpable fact, that 
he was a total wreck, mind, body, and estate ? 

Was not forgiveness under those circumstances 
the least his father could do for him ? Pure be- 
nevolence desires to see no greater penalty inflicted 
on the sinner than the natural consequences of his 
own misdeeds. There is no satisfaction in his suf- 
ferings. The only solicitude in the parent's heart 
is the welfare of the erring and repentant child. 
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should 
die ? saith the Lord God ; and not that he should re- 
turn from his ways and live ? " 

The doctrine of the parable of the Prodigal Son 
covers the whole ground of this Discourse. It de- 
clares, in the most unqualified manner, the readiness 
of God to forgive the penitent. The remission of 
their sins is full, free, and complete. What a pre- 
cious doctrine is this to the sinful children of men, 
to the conscience burdened with a sense of past 
offences, and trembling under the apprehension of 
the Divine displeasure ! Of all messengers he is the 
most welcome who comes to us with the assurance 
of pardon from God! 

But at the same time it ought to be said, that it 

is not the doctrine of this parable, that forgiveness 

implies a restoration to as good a condition as if 

there had never been a departure from rectitude; that 

16* 



186 



DOCTRINES. 



a sinful life, followed by repentance, is as good as a 
life of uniform obedience. The sinner is simply for- 
given. The prodigal does not stand, and he ought 
not to stand, on the same level with the brother who 
had never gone astray. The prodigal's patrimony is 
gone, and there is no new division of the estate. 
" Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is 
thine." The prodigal has nothing, and he has sim- 
ply to begin anew, and gradually build up a char- 
acter, and by a holy life to lay up treasure in heaven. 

We now come to the conditions of forgiveness. 
These, according to the teachings of Christ, are two, 
repentance, and the forgiveness of those who sin 
against us. 

Repentance is, in the nature of things, indispen- 
sable to forgiveness. It must be remembered, that 
the evil of sin consists not alone in the evil conse- 
quences which must always follow the violation of 
the wise laws of the Creator, the wreck of the phys- 
ical constitution, and the confusion and disaster 
which are introduced into human affairs. It consists 
also, and chiefly, in alienation from God, a sense of 
fear and a consciousness of estrangement. This is 
a purely spiritual effect of sin, and it is perhaps the 
saddest and most destructive of human happiness. 

The soul of man is made for union and com- 
munion with God, just as a human child is made to 
love its human father, and to derive the most ex- 
quisite enjoyment from that relation. This human 
sentiment is purely spiritual. It is independent of 
all material relations. The poorest man, when he 
takes his child upon his knee, feels as true enjoyment 
from the mere exercise of affection, though he is 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 187 

only able to supply his daily bread, as the^ richest, 
who is able to provide his offspring with every 
luxury. And so the child, in the consciousness of 
loving its parent, and receiving in turn his well- 
merited affection, has a perennial source of enjoy- 
ment, wholly independent of the physical aid it re- 
ceives at his hand. The worst effect of the miscon- 
duct of the child is the bereavement of this affection ; 
and disobedience inevitably breaks it up. And there 
can be no effectual relief except in reconciliation. 
Forgiveness and remission of sin, on the part of the 
parent, would avail little or nothing for the benefit of 
the son. The main difficulty is the estrangement, 
and the estrangement is the effect of character. 

Hence the absolute necessity of repentance as a 
condition of the pardon of sin. There must be a 
change of mind and character ; there must be a con- 
viction of error and unworthiness ; there must be a 
restoration to the supreme love of goodness for its 
own sake ; then there will be a capacity to love the 
father again, and not before. 

Thus Christianity rests on the most solid and sub- 
stantial philosophical basis. It is not a fanaticism ; 
it is not a mere enthusiasm. It is conformed to the 
essential principles and the real condition and wants 
of human nature. It is a message of mercy and rec- 
onciliation from a holy God to sinful man. It finds 
man estranged from God by disobedience, and en- 
deavors to bring about a reconciliation upon the only 
possible basis, that of repentance and reformation. 
It has met the wants of man as a sinner, in all 
ages since its promulgation. It has led men to re- 
pentance, and in that repentance they have found 
peace and reconciliation with God. 



188 DOCTRINES. 

It may be added, that the Gospel offers no new 
means of salvation unknown in former ages. The 
only remedy for sin that ever was, or ever can be, 
is repentance and reformation. That is a change 
which must take place in us. Repentance itself rec- 
onciles us to God, because by the exercise of it we 
pass over from a love of sin to an abhorrence of it, 
and from an indifference to goodness to a love of it. 
We are thus restored to a communion with God, 
and are reconciled to him. This is in the nature 
of things, and remained unaffected by the advent 
of Christ. 

The only change that took place was, that Christ 
was the especial ambassador of God's mercy. And 
to this end the first doctrine he preached, the first 
message he delivered, was a summons to repentance. 
"And from that time Jesus began to preach, and to 
say, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." 
This was likewise the preaching of the Apostles 
after his resurrection. " Repent and be converted, 
that your sins may be blotted out." This was his 
instruction to the two disciples on the way to Em- 
maus. " And he said unto them, Thus it is written, 
and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise 
from the dead the third day, and that repentance 
and remission of sins should be preached in his name 
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." 

It was this which constituted the Apostles the 
ambassadors of God's mercy and the ministers of rec- 
onciliation, according to the representation of Paul. 
"All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to him- 
self by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry 
of reconciliation ; to wit, that God was in Christ, 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 189 

reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing 
their trespasses unto them ; and hath committed 
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, then, 
we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God 
did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ's 
stead, Be ye reconciled to God." 

The only other condition that is mentioned by 
Christ, on our part, for obtaining the Divine forgive- 
ness, is that we freely and fully forgive those of our 
fellow -men who have offended us. And it is remark- 
able how strongly and frequently Christ has insisted 
on this. 

In the first place, it is made a part of the Lord's 
prayer, that universal and perpetual manual of devo- 
tion. " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our 
debtors." And he immediately subjoins : " For if 
ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly 
Father also will forgive you. But if ye forgive not 
men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive 
your trespasses." He made this condition of the 
Divine forgiveness the especial subject of a most 
impressive parable. 

" Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto 
a certain king, which would take account of his ser- 
vants. And when he began to reckon, one was 
brought unto him which owed him ten thousand 
talents ; but inasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord 
commanded him to be sold, and his wife and chil- 
dren, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 
The servant, therefore, fell down and worshipped him, 
saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay 
thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved 
with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the 



190 DOCTRINES. 

debt. But the same servant went out, and found 
one of his fellow-servants which owed him an hun- 
dred pence ; and he laid hands on him, and took him 
by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And 
his fellow-servant fell down at his feet, saying, Have 
patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he 
would not, but went and cast him into prison till he 
should pay the debt. So when his fellow-servants 
saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came 
and told unto their lord all that was done. Then 
his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, 

thou wicked servant, I forgave thee jail that debt, 
because thou desiredest me : shouldest not thou also 
have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as 

1 had pity on thee ? And his lord was wroth, and 
delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay 
all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my 
Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your 
hearts forgive not every one his brother their treS' 
passes" 

Such, then, according to Christ, are the conditions 
of the forgiveness of sins, — penitence, and the free 
and hearty forgiveness of those who have offended us. 
The terms are certainly reasonable. Pardon, without 
repentance, could do us no good. The evil of sin is 
subjective, and not objective alone. It is chiefly in 
ourselves, in that hostility to God and goodness 
which it produces in our own hearts. We want 
reconciliation, as well as pardon, and that nothing 
but true repentance can bring about. 

In that humble state of mind which true penitence 
produces, we are ready to forgive those who have 
trespassed against us. And we are not in the re- 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 191 

ligious, Christian attitude of mind, unless we are 
ready to forgive those who have kindled our re- 
sentment. 

But it may be asked, Did not Christ teach that 
there was some other condition of the Divine forgive- 
ness ? Does he not connect the forgiveness of sins 
with his own death in such a manner as to make 
his death the procuring cause of the forgiveness of 
sins ? Do not the New Testament writers make a 
condition of the forgiveness of sins, a faith in the 
efficacy of Christ's death to take away sin ? Did he 
not say of the wine of the communion, " This is my 
blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many 
for the remission of sins " ? Does not John the 
Baptist say of him, " Behold the Lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sin of the world " ? Does not 
the Apostle John say, " And the blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth us from all sin " ? Does not Paul 
say, " For all have sinned and come short of the 
glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, 
through the redemption there is in Christ Jesus, 
whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, 
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteous- 
ness for the remission of sins that are past, through 
the forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at this 
time, his righteousness, that he might be just and 
the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus " ? 

The key of all such language as this is found in 
the application of certain phrases in these passages 
to certain facts, usages, and ideas of the Jewish 
ritual. "The blood of the new covenant" is an 
allusion to the ceremonies with which the Mosaic 
dispensation, which was called a covenant, was rati- 



192 DOCTRINES. 

fied between God and the people of Israel. All pub- 
lic compacts and contracts were ratified, in ancient 
times, by a sacrifice, of which both parties partook. 
Often blood was sprinkled on both parties, with the 
same intention of signifying that the stipulation had 
the assent of both parties. 

The ratification of the Mosaic institute is de- 
scribed in the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus, and 
is thus epitomized by the author of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews : " For when Moses had spoken every 
precept to all the people according to the law, he 
took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and 
scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book 
and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the 
covenant which God hath enjoined unto youP When, 
in allusion to this transaction, Jesus says of the 
wine of the communion, " Drink ye all of it: this is 
the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for 
many for the remission of sins" — he does not mean 
to say that his blood procures the forgiveness of sins, 
but ratifies the covenant, or dispensation of religion. 
a prominent part of which is the commandment of 
repentance, and the promise of forgiveness. 

And precisely so is it in the other case, in which 
Christ is called a propitiation. " Whom God hath set 
forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood." 
The word here rendered propitiation is mercy-seat. 
Hence the use of the phrase " set forth." It is all 
equivalent to saying, that " Christ is the mercy-seat 
of the new dispensation," that is, the symbol and 
pledge of God's mercy. 

The origin of this allusion is, that on the great 
day of atonement, while the people were afflicting 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 193 

their souls and praying without, the high-priest took 
a part of the blood of the sacrifice, and carried it into 
the holy of holies, and sprinkled it on the lid of the 
ark, as being the most sacred thing on earth, and 
the nearest representative of God, who was one of 
the parties to the transaction solemnized by sacrifice, 
that is, the forgiveness of sins. The blood of the 
sacrifice did not procure the forgiveness of sins. It 
was the penitence of the people. The blood was 
merely the symbol of that forgiveness. 

And so it would not be agreeable to fact to repre- 
sent that the blood of Christ was the procuring 
cause of the forgiveness of mankind. It was the 
seal of the mission of Christ as the ambassador of 
God's mercy. It was a testimony that the summons 
to repentance which Christ brought came from God, 
and that it was accompanied by his promise of for- 
giveness. 

Finally, what was Christ's doctrine concerning 
the assurance of forgiveness ? Can the penitent 
know that God has forgiven him, or have such an 
assurance of it as to give him peace ? It is his doc- 
trine, as it seems to me, that the true penitent 
always finds peace, just in proportion to the depth 
and sincerity of his repentance. 

This doctrine seems to me to be taught in the 
parable of the Pharisee and publican, who wen 
up into the temple to pray. According to that rep- 
resentation, justification is an inward, and not an 
outward fact. It arises from the nature of things, 
and not from a conventional arrangement. True 
repentance is a matter of individual, personal con- 
sciousness. A man, if he knows anything, must 
17 



194 DOCTRINES. 

know his mental condition. He must know intui- 
tively whether he is truly penitent. His restoration 
to peace must depend on this consciousness. There 
can be no self-deception in this. A proud man can- 
not have the consciousness that he is an humble 
man. An impenitent man cannot have the con- 
sciousness that he is a penitent man. He cannot 
have the consciousness that he is restored to peace. 
He cannot, in the language of the Scriptures, feel 
justified. 

" Two men went up into the temple to pray, 
the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The 
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: 
God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, 
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this pub- 
lican. I fast twice in the week ; I give tithes of all 
that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, 
would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, 
but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful 
to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to 
his house justified, rather than the other." 

Such, then, according to Christ, is the nature of 
justification, such is the assurance of divine par- 
don, which is consequent upon true repentance. 
In addition to this, every Christian has the assu- 
rance of Christ, as God's ambassador. Everything 
miraculous about him confirms it, especially his 
resurrection from the dead. As it is expressed by 
Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, " Who was de- 
livered for our offences, and was raised again for our 
justification." Our assurance of pardon, over and 
above the peace which flows from sincere penitence, 
is commensurate with our faith in the resurrection of 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 195 

Jesus, by which his especial embassage of God's 
mercy is confirmed. 

Such was Christ's doctrine of the forgiveness of 
sins. Such was its certainty, such were its condi- 
tions, and such its assurance. It opens the way of 
salvation to the very chiefest of sinners, and leaves 
the disobedient and impenitent without excuse. 



DISCOURSE XIII. 



IMMORTALITY. 

AND AS TOUCHING THE DEAD, THAT THEY RISE, HAVE YE 
NOT READ IN THE BOOK OF MOSES, HOW IN THE BUSH GOD 
SPAKE UNTO HIM, SAYING, I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, 
AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB ? HE IS 
NOT THE GOD OF THE DEAD, BUT THE GOD OF THE LIVING : 

FOR all live unto him. — Mark xii. 26, 27. 

The cardinal doctrine of Christ and the New Tes- 
tament is the doctrine of immortality, that our being 
is not extinguished at death, that the soul, the spirit- 
ual part of man, on its separation from the body, 
passes into the spiritual world, where it retains its 
consciousness and its identity, and is for ever after- 
wards incapable of extinction, and no more subject 
to death. This doctrine is agreeable to the natural 
convictions, impressions, and expectations of all 
mankind. It is not only a natural conviction, but 
a moral sentiment. There is an involuntary preju- 
dice against that man who calls this doctrine in 
question. It is felt concerning him, that he has ab- 
dicated the highest honor of his being, and that for 
some reason, discreditable to himself, he has re- 
nounced the highest dignity of man. There must 



IMMORTALITY. 197 

be some moral deficiency which leads a man to judge 
himself unworthy of so high a destiny, or some 
moral degradation or delinquency, which makes a 
man afraid to meet the issues of a spiritual and im- 
mortal life. In Jesus there was no such bias, and 
no reason for it. His soul was ever in unison with 
the harmonies of the unseen world, and therefore he 
spoke of it with perfect serenity, as a fixed and as- 
sured reality. 

He placed the doctrine upon the ground of super- 
natural knowledge, of argument, and of fact. On this 
ground it has rested securely ever since. Promul- 
gated on this new and higher evidence, it became 
the main element of the moral power of the Gospel, 
by which it created the world anew, gave the intel- 
lectual, the moral, and the spiritual in man a more 
fixed and decided supremacy over the animal than 
they had ever attained before, and brought down to 
earth the peace and the power of that heaven which 
it promised. The great peculiarity of the Gospel 
was, that " it brought life and immortality to light." 

I purpose to-day to consider these three chief 
grounds of the doctrine of immortality as laid down 
by Jesus, his own supernatural knowledge, the argu- 
ment derived from the religious nature of man, and 
the fact of his own resurrection. 

There is nothing plainer to my mind, in the record 
of the New Testament, than the claim advanced 
by Jesus to supernatural knowledge, and the con- 
sciousness he displayed of possessing it. It is tes- 
tified to by the Evangelists. " Before that Philip 
called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw 
thee." That this knowledge was miraculous, and 
17* 



198 DOCTRINES. 

was exhibited by Jesus as miraculous, and as an evi- 
dence of his divine mission, appears from what im- 
mediately follows : " Because I said unto thee, I saw 
thee under the fig-tree, believest thou ? Thou shalt 

see greater things than these Hereafter ye 

shall see heaven open, and the angels of God as- 
cending and descending upon the Son of Man." 

To the woman of Samaria he said : " Thou hast 
well said, I have no husband ; for thou hast had five 
husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy hus- 
band. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I 

perceive that thou art a prophet." 

" Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, 
many believed in his name when they saw the mira- 
cles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself 
unto them, because he knew all men." As an instance 
of this supernatural knowledge of the thoughts and 
characters of men, his conversation with Nicodemus 
is related, in which he speaks to his thoughts and 
purposes rather than answers his words. 

" Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may 
awake him out of sleep." " Then said Jesus unto 
them plainly, Lazarus is dead ; and I am glad for 
your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye 
may believe." Here was certainly supernatural 
knowledge. 

" This night," said he to Peter, " before the cock 
crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." 

Such are the claims which Jesus made to super- 
natural knowledge, and, coinciding with facts, they 
render probable the knowledge he claimed to possess 
of the spiritual and unseen world, and of the destiny 
of man after death. When he said to the thief upon 



IMMORTALITY. 199 

the cross, " To-day shalt thou be with me in Para- 
dise," we have reason to believe that he, who could 
foreknow the time, manner, and circumstances of 
his own death, and could foretell his resurrection 
the third day, possessed a degree of supernatural 
knowledge not inferior certainly to the cognizance of 
that unseen state to which the soul of man passes 
when it leaves its terrestrial abode. 

I now come to the argument. The argument is* 
based upon a quotation from the Old Testament. 
It is there related, that Moses encountered a vision 
of a burning bush, out of which a voice proceeded 
which said, " I am the God of thy father, the God of 
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." 

As these words stand in the original, they are only 
the declaration by which Jehovah identifies himself 
with that being who, almost four centuries before, 
had revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
In that sense, they would have no relation to the 
doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and could 
not logically be quoted as having any bearing upon 
that subject. That he was the same God who had 
once appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would 
not prove that they were now in being. 

The source of the argument, in my judgment, 
lies deeper, and it seems to me to be this. In the 
spiritual relation which is recognized between God 
and the patriarchs, in virtue of which he was their 
God, immortality is implied. It lies in this : "lam 
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." In order 
to have a God, in the sense here intended, a being 
must possess a rational, moral, and spiritual nature, 
so as to recognize God's existence. The dumb, ir- 



200 DOCTRINES. 

rational animals have a God in the sense of having 
a Creator, Provider, and Benefactor, but they know 
nothing of it. They have no conscious relation to 
him, and, in the sense in which the Saviour speaks, 
they have no God. They can form no idea of him, 
are incapable of receiving any revelation from him. 
They therefore are incapable of religion. They have 
no moral ideas, and are incapable of moral discipline. 
T3eyond a certain limit, there is nothing in their 
natures progressive, either in knowledge, character, 
or enjoyment. The very absence, then, of a moral 
. and spiritual nature, and any recognition of God, 
makes their whole being commensurate with this 
present life, and shuts out all expectation of immor- 
tality from our minds, when we contemplate their 
whole being and all its relations. We have no evi- 
dence that such a conception ever enters into their 
minds, or whatever in them takes the place of mind. 
A continued existence, to a being so constituted, is 
comparatively valueless. Their existence is not 
cumulative in its nature, and when it ceases, there is 
no reason to be given why it should be renewed, 
rather than that another being of similar nature and 
capacities should be called into existence in its 
place. 

The possession of these very faculties and endow- 
ments, of which the brutes are destitute, constitutes 
the natural probability of the immortality of man. The 
gift of reason reveals to man a God, the things that 
are made make necessary the conception of a Creator 
and a belief in his existence. The knowledge of 
right and wrong is itself a perpetual revelation. 
Those qualities of actions reveal themselves to my 



IMMORTALITY. 201 

mind, not only without my volition, but against my 
will. I am conscious of possessing, by divine en- 
dowment, the power of choosing between right and 
wrong. I feel bound, by an obligation which I can- 
not explain and cannot resist, to choose the right 
and to reject the wrong. This sense of obligation 
is a law imposed upon me by the Author of my 
being. I cannot, therefore, avoid investing him with 
another character besides that of Creator. He is to 
me a Lawgiver, and I cannot avoid feeling my re- 
sponsibility to him as such. 

This responsibility is spiritual. It is independent 
of time and space, for God is a spiritual being, eter- 
nal and unchangeable. Our souls are spiritual, or 
they would not be able to apprehend God's spirit- 
uality. Our relations to God, being spiritual and 
independent of time and space, naturally lead to the 
conclusion that our existence, as it resembles God's in 
its intelligence and spirituality, so it will be parallel to 
his in duration. Its endowments certainly point to 
such a destination. 

A being, then, who is capable of having a God, 
that is, of sustaining a conscious relation to him, is 
formed for immortality in the very structure of his 
nature, has indications of a destiny not to close with 
a few short years of an earthly and material exist- 
ence, but to live on in a spiritual state, when all 
connection with the material world shall have been 
dissolved. 

We are now able to perceive the force and per- 
tinency of Christ's argument, that Abraham's ca- 
pacity of consciously having a God was a reason 
for believing in his immortality, thatlis, his having 



202 DOCTRINES. 

a religious nature was an argument for his immor- 
tality. God would not endow a being so highly, 
whom he had created to perish at death. If man 
were destined to perish with the brutes, he would 
have been created like the brutes. 

Moreover, God had had special communication 
with Abraham. He had said to him, " Walk before 
me, and be thou perfect." At another time, " Fear 
not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding 
great reward." Was there anything in Abraham's 
earthly life to correspond to this great and unlimited 
promise ? and if not, can the Divine veracity be vin- 
dicated unless we suppose another and a spiritual 
life ? 

" Walk before me and be thou perfect." Here is 
a recognition of Abraham as a subject of law and 
obligation. He was bound to be perfect, cost what 
it might, not to seek for any present pleasure or ad- 
vantage, but to seek to be perfect, to the sacrifice of 
everything else. Moral perfection has no immediate 
respect to any of the good things of this life, and 
though it generally leads to all good, yet it some- 
times compels a man to renounce everything, even 
life itself, rather than prove false to duty. This 
command to seek for perfection was not confined to 
Abraham, but is the essential law of our moral na- 
ture all over the world. Its obligations are every- 
where equally imperative. It extends up to the hour 
of death, and our last act may be to surrender life 
rather than prove false to duty. 

If this life be all, what becomes of God's prom- 
ise, " I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great re- 
ward"? If Abraham ceases to exist, the promise 



IMMORTALITY. 



203 



fails, and Abraham has sacrificed everything, even 
life itself, to a mere phantom of delusive expectation. 
The fact, then, that Abraham is capable of having 
a God, that is, of being conscious of his relation to 
God, of acting with reference to the will of God, 
points him out as a being of a nobler nature than 
the beasts which perish* makes his nature incom- 
mensurate with the narrow confines of this present 
world, and makes the supposition of another neces- 
sary to restore the proportion between man's en- 
dowments and his condition. 

So, on the other hand, that man has a God is a 
pledge that nothing will be left undone by that God 
which is becoming to his character as God ; that he 
will bestow the reward he has promised, and there- 
fore, as death sometimes intervenes, or is the conse- 
quence of a faithful adherence to duty, omnipotence 
and perfect justice are arguments for believing that 
the spiritual existence of man will be continued be- 
yond the present life. 

This, as I apprehend, is precisely the force of the 
phrase, " God is not the God of the dead, but of the 
living." It is as easy for God to preserve as to 
create. God would not suffer a being which he had 
made capable of having a God to perish, that is to 
say, the capacity of religion is >a pledge of immor- 
tality. 

This is a great truth, and it appeals to the reason 
of universal humanity, and in my judgment is the 
real ground of that firm persuasion of another life, 
which has pervaded all nations and prevailed in all 
ages. The question recurs at once, and is to my 
mind unanswerable, Why should God have created 



204 DOCTRINES. 

man a religious being at all, if he had not destined 
him to immortality ? The religious part of man's 
nature is incommensurate with our present state of 
existence, and with our present life. 

The first quality which makes man a religious 
being is his capacity of knowledge, his intelligence. 
Without this, religion would be impossible, and im- 
mortality improbable. Man's intellect makes him 
a religious being, because it leads directly to the 
knowledge and recognition of a God. It leaves 
him no choice whether he will be a religious being 
or not. The world as it exists forces upon the mind 
the belief in a God. In the language of the Apos- 
tle Paul, " For the invisible things of him from the 
creation of the world are clearly seen, being under- 
stood by the things that are made, even his eternal 
power and Godhead ; so that they are without ex- 
cuse." Now this capacity of knowledge is abso- 
lutely without limits. In the short life of man, it 
merely begins the career of expansion and enlarge- 
ment. The object of that knowledge is the universe, 
which to us is infinite. The impediment which in- 
tervenes between the capacity of knowledge in man, 
and its object, is death. If death be literally extinc- 
tion, then is that divorce final and complete. Human 
existence, so far as its capacities of knowledge are 
concerned, is an abortion. It is a bud which ripens 
into no fruit. It is a spring which is followed by no 
summer. It is a morning which opens to no day. 

Hence the presence of a great and cultivated mind 
is felt to be a strong argument for immortality. It 
is a demonstration of the dignity of human nature, 
and of course of its preciousness in the sight of God. 



IMMORTALITY. 205 

Its destiny ought to correspond to its dignity, and 
the narrow bounds of this present short and imper- 
fect life become too contracted to measure and con- 
fine its existence and capacities. And the multitudes 
who resort from age to age to the truly great man's 
grave nowhere feel on earth a greater confidence in 
the immortal destiny of man, or a stronger repug- 
nance to the atheistic and irreligious thought, that 
such a mind has been extinguished in eternal night. 
They exclaim, in the words of Christ, " God is not 
the God of the dead, but of the living." 

Again, man, of all terrestrial animals, is created 
with a sense of duty. Nay, duty is the highest law 
of his being. So strong is the feeling of obligation 
to do the thing that is right, that it is more impor- 
tant to his peace and happiness than anything else. 
It is this which constitutes man a religious being. 
This is the very meaning of the word religious, 
that is to say, bound by a sense of obligation. Bat 
in order to be bound, there must be something 
external to ourselves to which we are bound. Obe- 
dience to the law of duty is not merely an act of 
prudence, and its violation a thing to be regretted, 
like an event over which we had no control. There 
is a universal feeling, that we have not only been 
unfortunate, but criminal. We have not only broken 
a law, but offended a person. We have not only 
made a mistake, but have contracted guilt. So 
strong is our natural conviction of the personality of 
God. The law written on our hearts, and on all 
hearts, makes us believe in the existence of a Law- 
giver. 

We do not look alone at the immediate, the nat- 
18 



206 



DOCTRINES. 



ural, and material consequences of our actions. We 
believe that our actions are written in the records of 
eternal justice, and, however long retribution may be 
delayed, it must overtake us at last. Much of the 
punishment of our evil deeds is purely spiritual, and 
has no reference to time and place. Retribution, in 
that case, implies and requires merely a continuance 
of being. A complete retribution requires immor- 
tality. 

On the other hand, fidelity to a sense of duty im- 
plies a continued existence. From the very nature 
of the case, it involves self-denial and self-sacrifice. 
If it were a mere compliance with present inclina- 
tion, it would not be compliance with a sense of 
duty. We comply with the requisitions of duty, 
not because we believe it will be self-denial in the 
end, but will be an infinite gain. And why do we 
believe this ? Because we believe in God, an infi.-. 
nite, omnipotent, and eternal Being, who has pledged 
himself in the very structure of our nature to the 
remuneration of those who, in obedience to him, 
sacrifice inclination to duty. 

But all this supposes that our own existence shall 
continue until this compensation shall take effect. 
The pledges implied in our moral nature would not 
be redeemed, if we were to make the sacrifices and 
then cease to exist before we could receive our 
promised reward. Such would be the condition of 
all good men in reference to the present life, if there 
were no hereafter. If death closes man's existence 
for ever, then the pledges of man's moral nature must 
remain for ever unredeemed. The sense of duty 
must be pronounced to be incommensurate with the 



IMMORTALITY. 



207 



duration of man's being. The life of every good 
man, then, is an argument for immortality. That 
there is such a thing as pure, disinterested virtue in 
the world, is a strong reason for believing that there 
is a heaven prepared by God which shall be its ap- 
propriate reward. God, we are certain, cannot be 
the God of the dead. If he has suffered good men 
to die and to cease to be, he has abdicated the 
throne of God, he has failed to dispense justice, he 
has neglected to perform his promise, he has falsified 
the pledges of man's moral constitution, and the 
final refuge of man is in scepticism and despair. 
"God is the God of the living." All live to 
him, and all must live to him, whom he has 
made capable of complying with the requisitions 
of duty. 

But man is not only a creature of intellect and of 
conscience, but likewise of affections. We have al- 
ready shown that intellect and conscience are both 
incommensurate with the narrow limits of this mor- 
tal life. I shall now proceed to show, that the af- 
fections are no less so. The affections have for their 
object the preservation of our being, and the promo- 
tion of our own happiness while we are in posses- 
sion of it. The first of the affections, whose effects 
we experience on coming into this life, is the pa- 
rental. This is necessary for the preservation of our 
being, for we are born utterly helpless. It is the 
strongest proof of God's care for us. It is antece- 
dent to any merit on our part. We are able at that 
period to give nothing but trouble and anxiety. 
Were it not for this spontaneous and unbought af- 
fection, we should perish in our very cradles. That 



208 DOCTRINES. 

it is in the hearts of our parents, we owe to the 
special provision of God. And it is one of the 
strongest evidences that we have a God, and do not 
owe our existence to chance. 

The existence of these affections, however, is not 
a valid argument for immortality, for they are shared 
by man with the brutes, for which there is no hope 
after death. There is one class of affections, not- 
withstanding, with respect to which the case is dif- 
ferent, — those which spring up between the truly 
good. They have for their object a spiritual, an en- 
during and illimitable happiness, a happiness which 
grows with years, with experience, with the disci- 
pline of the joys and sorrows of life. It becomes 
most intense in the purest and most refined, and 
unites them together by such tender ties, that they 
make up the best part of existence itself. Those 
affections are the very life of life, and their loss con- 
stitutes the bitterest part of death itself. 

These same affections, having embraced all good 
men on earth, mount upward to God, who is good- 
ness itself, pure, unmixed, unchangeable, eternal. 
The happiness of a holy man comes at last to con- 
sist in a great measure in loving God. The highest 
language of devotion is to him no exaggeration. 
He says to God, with the profoundest sincerity and 
the deepest joy : " Thou art my rock, my confidence, 
my hope! In thee do I put my trust! Thy pres- 
ence is the light of the world." " Though I walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
fear no evil, for thou art with me. In thy presence 
is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures 
for evermore." 



IMMORTALITY. 209 

Are these affections mortal, and destined to perish 
for ever in the grave ? God would not be God to 
those in whose bosoms he had bidden such affec- 
tions to spring, and then defrauded them of their 
object by annihilating them for ever. " God is not 
the God of the dead, but of the living" The spiritual 
nature and religious capacities of man, his intellect, 
his conscience, and his affections, are altogether in- 
commensurate with this short and uncertain life. 
His nature corresponds to immensity and eternity. 
The law of adaptation intimates immortality to 
man. The Saviour, then, in his discussion with the 
Sadducees, appeals to the universal argument which 
pervades all minds, and, though it fails to express it- 
self in words, underlies and sustains those convic- 
tions of a destiny stretching beyond this present life, 
which seem to constitute a species of universal, un- 
written, unquestionable revelation. 

The last ground upon which Christ rested the 
doctrine of immortality was that of actual and 
palpable fact, — "I am the resurrection and the 
life." 

Facts have much greater power than arguments 
over the human mind. The natural course of rea- 
son is to generalize, to deduce general truths and 
principles from particular facts, and not to infer 
particular facts from general principles. Accordingly, 
the world was startled from its delusion of selfish- 
ness and its delirium of sensuality, not by the teach- 
ing, but by the resurrection of Jesus. It set Jerusalem 
in an uproar, which had been quiet under his preach- 
ing for three years. To have been witnesses of it 
18* 



210 DOCTRINES. 

set the Apostles on high in the regard and the rev- 
erence of mankind. It clothed them with author- 
ity which men had never possessed before, and ena- 
bled them to convert, regenerate, and sanctify the 
world. 






DISCOURSE XIV 



RETRIBUTION. 

MARVEL NOT AT THIS: FOR THE HOUR IS COMING, IN THE 
WHICH ALL THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES SHALL HEAR HIS 
VOICE, AND SHALL COME FORTH ; THEY THAT HAVE DONE 
GOOD, UNTO THE RESURRECTION OF LIFE ; AND THEY 
THAT HAVE DONE EVIL, UNTO THE RESURRECTION OF 

damnation. — John v. 28, 29. 

In connection with the doctrine of immortality, 
Christ taught distinctly and emphatically the doc- 
trine of retribution ; that those v\ ho have done good 
shall come forth to the resurrection of life, and those 
who have done evil, to the resurrection of condem- 
nation. 

All terms, of course, in the New Testament, which 
speak of judgment, acquittal, condemnation, &c, are 
figurative and analogical. They are taken from 
human modes of administering justice, of convict- 
ing the guilty and discharging the innocent. 

The Divine government is differently administered. 
A system of retribution is interwoven into the nature 
of things. The laws of God are spiritual, and exe- 
cute themselves. To be vicious is to be miser- 
able. To be virtuous is measurably to be happy. 



212 DOCTRINES. 

There are, of course, impediments to each ; there are 
hindrances to a perfect retribution in the present 
life. Death will remove those impediments, and a 
continued spiritual existence will necessarily bring 
about a complete retribution. Hence it is, that death 
and the day of judgment are spoken of in such 
close connection. The true character then will be- 
come known, the ties which connected the good 
and the bad will be dissolved. The good will no 
longer suffer with the bad the consequences of their 
vices, nor the vicious be sheltered from the conse- 
quences of their misdeeds by the society and com- 
passion of the virtuous. 

In announcing and establishing the doctrine of 
rm mortality, Christ at the same time announced and 
established the doctrine of retribution. But neither 
did the doctrine of a resurrection or a retribution 
originate in the teaching of Jesus. They were doc- 
trines common among the Jews at the time of 
Christ, and for many ages before. Martha says to 
Jesus, of her brother Lazarus, " I know that he shall 
rise again in the resurrection at the last day." This 
doctrine she did not first learn from Jesus, but had 
received it as a common doctrine of religion current 
among the Jews. Such a doctrine had prevailed as 
early at least as the writing of the book of Daniel. 
In that, it is said, " And many of them that sleep in 
the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlast- 
ing life, and some to shame and everlasting con- 
tempt." And it is remarkable how spiritual are the 
instruments of future punishment which are intro- 
duced into this early announcement. The punish- 
ment by hell-fire, which our Saviour adopts, was an 



RETRIBUTION. 213 

image introduced in an after age. The images of 
that early day were "everlasting life," and "shame 
and everlasting contempt." One of the young men 
immolated by Antiochus Epiphanes, as related in 
the Second Book of Maccabees, for his adherence to 
the Mosaic religion, addressed to him the following 
speech : " Thou, like a fury, takest us out of this 
present life ; but the King of the world shall raise us 
up, who have died for his laws, unto everlasting 
life." 

But Christ taught as a doctrine of revelation that 
which before had prevailed as an opinion. " And 
this is the will of him that sent me, that every one 
that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have 
everlasting life : and I will raise him up at the last 
day." He announces this in his prophetic character. 
" This is the will of God." 

But the Jews had held the opinions of immortality 
and retribution in connection with fundamental 
error. It was a saying among their Rabbins, which 
everywhere occurs in their writings, " There is a 
part for all Israel in the world to come." All Israel 
are sure of future happiness, let their individual and 
private character be what it may. But there was 
no salvation for a heathen, no portion in future bless- 
edness, let his virtues be never so eminent. This 
grand error both Jesus and John the Baptist set 
themselves immediately to correct. It stood in the 
way of the preliminary message of John, " Repent, 
for the kingdom of God is at hand." The Jews, in 
their conceit, imagined that they had no need of re- 
pentance. They were of the holy seed of Abraham, 
and therefore they could not be lost. This mistake 



214 DOCTRINES. 

he at once cut up by the roots, and admonished the 
scribes and Pharisees, Jews though they might be, 
" O generation of vipers ! who hath warned you to 
flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, 
fruits meet for repentance; and begin not to say 
within yourselves, We have Abraham for our Father; 
for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones 
to raise up children unto Abraham." And he closes 
with announcing the opposite doctrine of personal, 
individual responsibility. " And now, also, the axe 
lieth at the root of the trees; therefore every tree 
which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down 
and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with 
water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me 
is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to 
bear : he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and 
with fire; whose fan is in his hand, and he will 
thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into 
the garner ; but he will burn up the chaff with un- 
quenchable fire." 

There is nothing, perhaps, in the New Testament 
which bears a greater verisimilitude than this passage. 
The images are rural, and appropriate to him who 
appeared in the desert, and was clothed with camel's 
hair, and fed on locusts and wild honey. The axe 
and the threshing-floor were the most familiar things 
to the inhabitants of the country, the barren and the 
fruitful tree, the wheat and the chaff, were the most 
impressive symbols of the righteous and the wicked, 
to an agricultural people, and the power and glory 
of the approaching Messiah are well set forth by 
him who has the power to baptize with the Holy 
Ghost and with fire, and to separate the chaff from 



RETRIBUTION. 215 

the wheat, to confer upon mankind new and higher 
degrees of spirituality and happiness, or to involve 
them in a misery more complete. In this new dis- 
pensation, no regard will be paid to race or nation ; 
the personal and individual character will be all that 
will be considered. Retribution, then, was the main 
feature of the Gospel from the beginning, from its 
first annunciation in the wilderness by John the 
Baptist. 

The doctrine of retribution is the main burden of 
Christ's Sermon on the Mount. It is so in the largest 
and most generous sense. It dwells chiefly on re- 
wards. It begins with large, affectionate, and liberal 
promises of reward. Christ preached no one-sided 
Gospel. He did not regard it as a mere instrument 
of police, or represent the main object of God's gov- 
ernment to be to keep people in order. There was 
no ecclesiasticism in his exhibition of Gospel truth. 
Retribution was not a thing to be addressed exclu- 
sively to the sense of guilt, to the fears and appre- 
hensions of mankind. According to him, it is God's 
pleasure to bestow happiness on his children, as far 
as they have fitted themselves to receive it. Pun- 
ishment is his strange work. 

Accordingly, he commences his preaching with 
the announcement of blessings, instead of the denun- 
ciation of punishments. " Blessed are the poor in 
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed 
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. 
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 
..... Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be 
called the children of God. Blessed are they which 



216 



DOCTRINES. 



are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the 
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall 
revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all man- 
ner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice 
and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in 
heaven" Here, then, the Gospel commences with 
the promise of a glorious reward in heaven. Retri- 
bution there is, not in the sense of threatening and 
terror, but of consolation, hope, and encouragement. 
And this is precisely what the toiling, suffering, frail, 
and tempted children of earth need, to sustain them 
in their daily trials, and to nerve them to their daily 
duties. 

But as the discourse proceeds, a higher law of ret- 
ribution is set up. Men are not to be rewarded for 
their good deeds unless the motive has been pure. 
Here is a distinction which the Mosaic code did not 
make, and which had never been insisted on by the 
saints and sages of the olden dispensation. " Take 
heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen 
of them ; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father 
which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest 
thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as 
the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, 
that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto 
you, they have their reward. But when thou doest 
alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand 
doeth, that thine alms may be in secret; and thy 
Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee 
openly." 

Here is the doctrine of retribution declared in a 
most stringent and impressive form. It lays the 
foundation of a thorough and spiritual virtue, of a 



RETRIBUTION. 217 

divine and not a mere human and ostensible morality. 
It proclaims a retribution as eternal as God, and as 
universal as his omnipresence ; as certain as his all- 
pervading agency, and as secret as the consciousness 
of the soul. 

The discourse winds up with a broader, though 
milder, statement of the doctrine of retribution. It 
is such a retribution as may extend no further than 
the operation of natural causes. " Therefore, who- 
soever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, 
I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his 
house upon a rock ; and the rain descended, and 
the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon 
that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a 
rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of 
mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a 
foolish man, which built his house upon the sand; 
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and 
the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it 
fell, and great was the fall of it." 

In this view of things, no change in the succession 
of events is supposed to take place in order to bring 
about a retribution, but natural causes are supposed 
to proceed according to the established order of the 
universe, and in that order virtue is rewarded and 
vice is punished. 

As all causes contain the seeds of all effects, he 
who thoroughly knows all causes can infallibly pre- 
dict all effects ; so that the annunciation of laws and 
the foretelling of events become at last identical. All 
preaching is reduced to the one simple message of 
the ancient prophet : " Say ye to the righteous that 
it shall be well with him ; for they shall eat the fruit 
19 



218 DOCTRINES. 

of their doings. Woe unto the wicked ! it shall be 
ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be 
given him." 

The images, in that case, in which future retribu- 
tory suffering is bodied forth, become accidental and 
conventional. In the book of Daniel, the future hap- 
piness of the righteous is symbolized by the bright- 
ness of heaven and the celestial luminaries. " And 
they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, 
as the stars, for ever and ever." The misery of the 
wicked is condensed into the significant expression of 
" shame and everlasting contempt." In after ages, 
the symbol of future misery became hell-fire, from a 
valley in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, where the 
offal of the city was thrown and consumed by a per- 
petual fire. The flames of this fire, gleaming through 
the darkness of the night, became a most impres- 
sive image of terror to those who beheld it. Jesus 
availed himself of these images, then familiar among 
the people, to impress upon them the spiritual reali- 
ties of the future retribution. Hence " the fire that 
never shall be quenched," and " the worm that never 
dies." 

In another part of the Gospel, Jesus draws still 
closer the bonds of obligation, and announces a 
more stringent rule of retribution. We are liable to 
be called to account, not only for what we do, but 
for what we leave undone. It is in the parable of the 
talents. There we are taught, that not only is a life 
of positive transgression sinful, but a life of mere 
uselessness and self-indulgence. We must diligently 
cultivate our faculties, and we must do good to 



RETRIBUTION. 219 

others. We are sent into the world for this purpose. 
We can do much good, both to ourselves and others. 
Not only can those do this who are highly endowed, 
but those of the humblest capacity; not only those 
who have five talents, but he who has two, and he 
who has one. Not only is this announced in the 
teaching of Jesus, but it takes hold on the human 
conscience as equitable and obligatory. 

Life and faculties and the power of action are 
given us, not that we may idle away our earthly ex- 
istence, not that we may immerse ourselves in pleas- 
ure, or take advantage of those around us, but to be 
up and doing while the sun of our day is above the 
horizon, to exercise and thus improve our faculties, 
and help those who stand in need of our aid. There 
is no human mind or heart that does not assent to 
these propositions as reasonable and just, and which 
does not acknowledge that, if man be a responsible 
being at all, there may be sins of omission as well 
as of commission. 

" For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travel- 
ling into a far country, who called his own servants, 
and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one 
he gave five talents, to another two, and to another 
one, to every man according to his several ability, and 
straightway took his journey. Then he that had re- 
ceived the five talents went and traded with the same, 
and made them other five talents. And likewise he 
that had received two, he also gained other two. But 
he that had received one went and digged in the 
earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long time 
the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth 
with them. And so he that had received five talents 



220 DOCTRINES. 

came, and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, 
thou deliveredst unto me five talents; behold, I have 
gained besides them five talents more. His lord 
said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful 
servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, 
I will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou 
into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received 
two talents came, and said, Lord, thou deliveredst 
unto me two talents ; behold, I have gained two other 
talents besides them; His lord said unto him, Well 
done, good and faithful servant ; thou hast been 
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler 
over many things : enter thou into the joy of thy 
lord. 

" Then he which had received the one talent came, 
and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard 
man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gather- 
ing where thou hast riot strawed ; and I was afraid, 
and went and hid thy talent in the earth : lo, there 
thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and 
said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, 
thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and 
gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest, 
therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers, 
and then at my coming I should have received 
mine own with usury. Take, therefore, the talent 
from him, and give it unto him which hath ten 

talents And cast ye the unprofitable servant 

into outer darkness : there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth." 

Such is the retribution which is to overtake mere 
unprofitableness. The law, at first sight, seems to 
be severe. But no one can complain of it as unjust 



RETRIBUTION. 221 

or unreasonable. Why should man be endowed 
like God, with God's own attributes of intelligence, 
will, freedom, activity, except that he may imitate 
God's beneficence in diffusing good and happiness 
on every side ? It is the natural judgment of the 
human mind, " He that knoweth to do good, and 
doeth it not, to him it is sin." 

But the law of retribution, as promulgated by 
Christ, is still more strict and exacting. Not only 
are we responsible for our actions, for what we do 
or leave undone, but for our words, for the mere ut- 
terances of our lips, which are but fleeting breath, an 
impulse upon the universal air, which dies almost as 
soon as it is born. " But I say unto you, that every 
idle word that men shall speak, they shall give ac- 
count thereof in the day of judgment." This is cer- 
tainly carrying the doctrine of responsibility to a 
fearful extent. But can we reasonably object to it ? 
Are not words equally the means of good and evil 
with actions? Can we not blaspheme God and 
slander men? Can we not propagate falsehood? 
Can we not with the tongue defraud men of their 
property, sap their principles, pollute their imagina- 
tions, and lead them on to sin and ruin? How 
much of the social evil which afflicts society is prop- 
agated by the tongue ! And yet the tongue is under 
our control, and we are justly responsible for its 
use. 

Not only so. Our Saviour has told us, that we are 
responsible for our thovghts. The voluntary indul- 
gence of the appetites and passions to that extent, 
that we are hindered from their gratification by out- 
ward impediments instead of inward scruples, makes 
19* 



222 DOCTRINES. 

us guilty in the sight of God. The will is as the 
deed. 

Such is the stringency of the law of retribution 
laid down in the Gospel of Christ. And it might 
well fill us with despair, and lead us to cry out, 
" "Who then can be saved ? " The Gospel as law 
is more strict than the Law itself. It was in this 
sense, doubtless, that Jesus said of himself, that " he 
came not to destroy the Law and the prophets, but 
to fulfil," and to produce a practical righteousness 
more thorough and spiritual than Judaism had ever 
exhibited, or the world had ever seen. 

And yet the Gospel is not mere law, a system of 
bare coercion, intended to keep mankind in order 
and secure the peace of the world. Such are the 
laws which human governments enact, to guard the 
community against the wrongs of the individual, and 
the individual against the oppression of the com- 
munity. Such were mainly the Mosaic laws. " The 
Law," says the Apostle, " was given by Moses, but 
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." The Gospel 
is a mingled system of mercy and spiritual truth. 
Into it the paternal principle is introduced, which 
tempers justice with love, which makes law not a 
stern necessity so much as a wise expedient, and its 
administration not so much an ultimate retribution 
as a remedial discipline. There is all the difference 
between the Law and the Gospel that there is be- 
tween the magistrate and the father. And nothing 
in the New Testament is to be interpreted in such 
a manner as to conflict with the Fatherhood of 
God. 

The overruling truth of the New Dispensation is 



RETRIBUTION. 223 

that God is our Father, and our Father is love. If 
this be true, law is made for man, and not man for 
law. Law has no further sacredness than as it pro- 
motes human good and human happiness. It is a 
rule of action dictated by the nature of things. It is 
not enacted to show God's authority, nor is it exe- 
cuted to vindicate his honor. It is addressed as a 
motive to influence the human will, to guide man 
along the path of safety to everlasting peace. Jus~ 
tice, as it is used as a theological term, is ambiguous 
and deceptive. It is said that God is a God of jus- 
tice, and therefore he is compelled, in order to sustain 
that character, to punish every sin. Who or what 
compels him ? Law is a means to an end, and is, 
of course, subordinated to that end. Human happi- 
ness can never be sacrificed to a law, without making 
the Deity the slave of an abstraction. 

It would be injustice to withhold from a free 
agent the reward which has been promised to his 
obedience or his endurance. There would be a 
breach of faith, and a disappointment of just expec- 
tation. But there is no injustice in remitting a 
penalty. No person is injured by it. A good being 
will always remit the penalty, whenever the happi- 
ness of the transgressor will be promoted by it. 

The justice of God, then, is the justice of a Father, 
and therefore all law and all punishment must be 
disciplinary. If God be a Father, and punishment 
be disciplinary, the consequence follows, that pun- 
ishment must be limited in duration. Punishment, 
in that case, is not an end in itself, it is a means to a 
further end. Punishment must likewise be limited 
by the justice, as well as the benevolence, of God. 



224 DOCTRINES. 

Guilt itself is finite, and admits of degrees. If the 
guilt of a small offence has a limit, as it must have 
to admit of one greater, then the great must have a 
limit too, and therefore cannot be infinite. Man is 
a finite being, and his faculties are finite. While 
here, he is in a state of comparative infancy. Noth- 
ing that he can do can merit an infinite punish- 
ment on the score of justice. Neither justice nor 
mercy can for a moment tolerate the idea of eternal, 
endless punishment. . The most fiendish heart that 
ever beat in a human bosom could not demand or 
witness it. Accordingly, Christ taught, that " that 
servant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not 
himself, neither did according to his will, shall be 
beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, 
and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be 
beaten with few stripes." Many stripes must have 
an end as well as few stripes, or there can be no 
proportion between them. This passage, of course, 
is to be permitted to modify others, in which great 
length of punishment seems to be intimated, such as 
the following : " And if thy hand cause thee to offend, 
cut it off, and cast it from thee ; it is better for thee 
to enter into life maimed, than, having two hands, to 
be cast into hell-fire, that never shall be quenched; 
where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched." 

In the parable of the lost sheep, it is said of the 
shepherd, who represents God, " If a man have an 
hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth 
he not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, 
and go after that which is lost, until he find it?" 
God is omnipotent, and can accomplish what he 



RETRIBUTION. 225 

pleases, and he is infinitely wise to select means 
which will carry out his purposes. 

In making up our individual minds upon this sub- 
ject, and individual opinion is as far as we can go, 
all the elements which relate to it must be taken 
into account. One of these elements is the character 
of God, which is fully revealed. God is our Father, 
and God is love, or is infinitely benevolent. He is om- 
niscient and omnipotent, and has an eternity in which 
to accomplish his purpose. Man is finite and im- 
perfect, and therefore cannot contract infinite guilt. 
Man is the child of God, and therefore God can 
never cease to desire his welfare, and pursue it. We 
have many passages of the Scriptures, which seem 
clearly to intimate, that all punishment, whether in 
this world or the next, has for its object the reforma- 
tion of the offender. The mind of man is essentially 
and unalterably free ; the only hindrance to its free- 
dom is the slavery of evil habit. It must, therefore, 
ever be accessible to motives, and capable of re- 
pentance. 

On the other hand, we have the capacity of man 
for sinfulness, corruption, and degradation. No hu- 
man eye has ever seen the bottom of this gulf. Free- 
dom being essential to the human mind, and, as far 
as we know, left inviolable by God, there is no cal- 
culating the orbit of its aberrations. The most un- 
favorable element in the estimate of the prospect of 
the speedy restoration of the wicked in a future 
world to purity and happiness, is the average result 
of earthly probation, and the general failure of the 
reformatory discipline of the present life to restore 
the vicious to stable virtue. There is certainly great 



226 DOCTRINES. 

difficulty in curing a single bad habit. " Can the 
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? 
then may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do 
evil." " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
neither will they be persuaded though one rose from 
the deadP 

Least of all is there any prospect in the sinner's 
path of expiating his sins by suffering, which ought 
to weigh a feather in relaxing the bonds of morality, 
or weakening the motives for seeking immediate sal- 
vation. 

I cannot better conclude this discussion, than in the 
words of South wood Smith, in his admirable trea- 
tise on the Divine Government: — "But it has been 
already shown, that the present system is adopted 
because it is on the whole the wisest and best. Fu- 
ture punishment is a necessary part of that system. 
What the actual amount and duration of it will be, 
we do not know. With undoubting confidence we 
may leave it to the determination of that wisdom 
which is absolute, and that goodness which is per- 
fect." 



DISCOURSE XV 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, THESE ARE THE WORDS WHICH I 
SPAKE UNTO YOU, WHILE I WAS YET WITH YOU, THAT ALL 
THINGS MUST BE FULFILLED WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN 
THE LAW OF MOSES, AND IN THE PROPHETS, AND IN THE 
PSALMS, CONCERNING ME. THEN OPENED HE THEIR UN- 
DERSTANDING, THAT THEY MIGHT UNDERSTAND THE SCRIP- 
TURES, AND SAID UNTO THEM, THUS IT IS WRITTEN, AND 
THUS IT BEHOOVED CHRIST TO SUFFER, AND TO RISE FROM 
THE DEAD THE THIRD DAY : AND THAT REPENTANCE AND 
REMISSION OF SINS SHOULD BE PREACHED IN HIS NAME 
AMONG ALL NATIONS, BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM. AND 
YE ARE WITNESSES OF THESE THINGS. — Luke Xxiv. 44-48. 

I have enumerated in the Discourses immediately 
preceding some of the principal doctrines taught by 
Christ. I have not, of course, exhausted this ele- 
ment of the New Testament, but merely shown that 
such an element exists. Next to doctrines, in the 
analysis which I have attempted to make, comes 
the element of Opinions. 

By opinions I mean the impressions and habits of 
thought which were current at the time of Christ, 
upon subjects collateral to religion, which he did not 



228 opinions. 

deem it expedient to criticise. Concerning these 
matters he did not consider it the dictate of wis- 
dom to make issue with his contemporaries. 

This distinction between doctrines and opinions is 
all-important, and must be made by the candid de- 
fender of the divine origin and authority of Chris- 
tianity. In speaking of these matters, as they often 
came in his way,three methods of procedure lay before 
the Saviour, — to forbear all allusion to them, to at- 
tempt to correct the popular opinions, or to adopt 
the common modes of speech in relation to them 
without remark or comment. The first would have 
been impossible, as they came up every day and 
hour. The second would have involved him in per- 
petual disputes, and nullified the force of his other 
teaching. There was nothing left but to do as he did, 
— to use the common language of his countrymen, 
and leave to time and science the correction of those 
errors which were merely scientific. 

This distinction becomes vital, when we apply it 
to the interpretation of the Old Testament. The Old 
Testament was almost the only literature which the 
Jews possessed. They were familiar with it, and 
could recite much of it from memory. The conse- 
quence was, that it came up to their recollection on 
all occasions, and was quoted on all occasions, with 
the remark that " the Scripture is fulfilled " by this 
and that event, meaning that there is a coincidence 
between them. There were likewise prophecies in the 
' old dispensation of the new. But the Jews did not 
confine themselves to these. They interpreted many 
passages as prophetic which were not so. In reason- 
ing with them, and endeavoring to give them truer 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 229 

ideas, Jesus sometimes takes them on their own 
ground, and shows them what would follow on their 
own premises. He likewise quotes the Old Testa- 
ment by way of coincidence. No fair-minded ex- 
positor of the New Testament will hesitate to make 
these concessions ; and if he insists on classing such 
expositions under the category of Doctrine, he be- 
trays his cause. 

Much light, as it seems to me, is thrown upon 
Christianity, by considering it as one of a series of 
Divine revelations, progressive in their nature, and 
calculated to meet the wants of mankind in the suc- 
cessive stages of their advancement. First came the 
Patriarchal, then the Jewish, then the Christian; and 
each was so contrived as to be not only introductory, 
but preparatory, to the next. Each was an enlarge- 
ment of the last, till Christianity, completing the 
series, was calculated to be universal and perpetual, 
to be coextensive with mankind, and to endure as 
long as time itself. 

First came the Patriarchal. It was brief and sim- 
ple, and adapted to a single family, or at most that 
family expanded to a tribe. The world was then in 
the pastoral state. It is very uncertain whether there 
were any cities of considerable size. The antiquity 
claimed for Egypt, when closely scrutinized, seems to 
me exceedingly apocryphal ; and the king of Egypt 
with whom Abraham held intercourse seems much 
more like a petty chieftain than the lord of untold 
millions. The revelations made to Abraham were 
very short, but exceedingly sublime and comprehen- 
sive. "After these things, the word of the Lord 
came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, 
20 



230 OPINIONS. 

Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great 
reward." On another occasion : " I am the Almighty 
God : walk before me, and be thou perfect." It wants 
but a few moments' reflection to realize how impres- 
sive and comprehensive these oracles were. They 
embraced, in few words, all the essential elements of 
religious faith and duty, — the existence, the person- 
ality, the providence, and the moral government of 
God, the moral nature, the freedom, and the account- 
ability of man. This w r as accompanied by the insti- 
tution of circumcision, as a national characteristic, 
the command to give his offspring a religious educa- 
tion, the promise that his posterity should possess 
the land of Canaan, and that " in him and in his 
seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed." 
The only social religious rite then was sacrifice ; but 
that was not new in the days of Abraham. It ran 
back to the very beginning of the world. 

And this revelation, this religion, this ritual, was 
ample for its purpose. Human relations, duties, and 
rights were then few, simple, and intelligible. No 
complicated system of laws was necessary, no ex- 
tensive organization of magistracy and priesthood. 
Such was the patriarchal religion, and it continued 
from Abraham to Moses, a period of more than four 
hundred years. Its practical working, its literature, 
its theology, are portrayed in the book of Job. His- 
torically, Job, as it seems to me, ought to come in 
between the books of Genesis and Exodus. Few 
are aware of the wide gap which intervenes between 
the last chapter of Genesis and the first chapter of 
Exodus, a period nearly or quite as long as inter- 
venes between the last chapter in Malachi and the 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 231 

first of Matthew, a period longer tfian has elapsed 
since the discovery of America. 

During that period, vast changes took place in the 
condition of the world. Mankind passed from the 
pastoral to the agricultural state. The land of Ca- 
naan, over which Abraham had wandered almost 
at will, was appropriated by seven different nations. 
Cities were built in all directions, and population be- 
came comparatively dense. Egypt grew to a great 
nation, rich and powerful, and the invention of al- 
phabetic writing put a new face upon society and 
the whole condition of man upon the earth. It made 
possible a fixed and permanent system of laws, and 
of course gave stability to all civil institutions. It 
gave man the power to record, preserve, and verify a 
revelation from God. No extensive revelation could 
precede the invention of writing, for tradition would 
soon so distort and interpolate any revelation, that 
it would no longer represent the primitive truth. 

In those intervening centuries, the condition of the 
descendants of the patriarchs had changed as much 
as that of the world at large. They had increased 
from seventy persons to more than a million, from a 
family to a nation. In what intellectual, moral, and 
religious condition they subsisted through that long 
tract of time, we have no means of knowing. Their 
breadth of religious knowledge must have been very 
narrow, their rites very few, and their expectations 
for the future confined chiefly to the promise which 
God had. made their fathers, that at some future 
period their descendants should possess the land of 
Canaan, and should be the instruments in the hands 
of Providence of blessing all the nations of the earth. 



232 opinions. 

As to the person who was to be raised up to con- 
duct them to such prosperity and happiness, they 
seem to have been left entirely in the dark. In the 
mean time, they were enslaved, and thus put in the 
way, not only to become physically strong and nu- 
merically powerful, but prepared, by a hearty dis- 
gust for the land of their bondage, to comply with 
the first intimation of Divine Providence that the 
day of their emancipation had arrived. 

The instrument of their deliverance at length ap- 
pears in Moses. And not only does God make him 
their leader, but their lawgiver and prophet, to teach 
them the principles of their religion, to institute their 
ritual, and establish the form of their civil government. 

When it was completed, to what did the Mosaic 
dispensation amount? Merely to the expansion of 
the patriarchal religion from the conditions of a 
family to the exigencies of a nation. The theology 
was the same, the principles of human duty were 
the same. Religion must be essentially the same 
in all dispensations. It is to love God with all 
the heart, and our neighbor as ourselves. 

The change introduced by Moses was mainly that 
of outward organization. Under the patriarchal form, 
the head of a family or tribe was magistrate and 
priest. He administered justice and performed sa- 
cred rites. The change introduced by Moses was, 
that the sacerdotal functions were delegated to one 
family, and the administration of ecclesiastical affairs 
to one tribe. Church and state were separated, and 
not suffered, as in Egypt and other countries, to 
coalesce into a crushing despotism. Idolatry was 
forbidden under the penalty of death, and various 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 233 

articles of food were prohibited which were freely 
used by the heathen, in order to prevent the Israel- 
ites from mingling in the licentious festivities which 
always accompanied idolatrous worship. 

The most material and significant institution or- 
dained or received in the wilderness was the Sab- 
bath. It is difficult to conceive how the Sabbath 
could have been of much use, or even have been ob- 
served, in the patriarchal religion, in which there 
were no temples, no synagogues, no law to medi- 
tate upon and teach to others, and no common rite, 
except sacrifice, in which to participate. But to the 
nation established in Canaan, the Sabbath was es- 
sential. It was a weekly homage to their heaven- 
derived law. It gave them leisure to acquaint them- 
selves with their history, their traditions, and their 
religion. It gave them, above all things, an oppor- 
tunity to give their children a religious education, 
and make them acquainted with all the minutice of 
their law. 

For about fifteen hundred years that institution 
endured. It wrought its work, it accomplished its 
end. One nation was redeemed from idolatry and 
thoroughly imbued with the principles of the true 
religion. But Judaism of course could not be ulti- 
mate. It could never be the design of the Universal 
Father to confine the true religion to one nation. It 
must, of course, have been the design of God to im- 
part this religion to the world, when the world was 
ready to receive it. And the promise from the be- 
ginning was, " In. thy seed shall all the families of 
the earth be blessed" The fulness of time at length 
arrived. 

20* 



234 opinions. 

Between the closing of the Old Testament and 
the opening of the New, a great change took place 
in the condition of the world ; as great as had oc- 
curred between the closing of the book of Genesis 
and the opening of the book of Exodus. All the 
civilized world was united under one government, 
that of the Romans, and the Greeks had diffused 
their language, their literature, their philosophy, al- 
most as widely, so that a spiritual religion might 
be propagated without let or hindrance from the 
Euphrates to the Atlantic. 

When the time had come for the diffusion of the 
true religion over the earth, the instrument was pro- 
vided to accomplish it ; and that instrument was Je- 
sus Christ. In that mainly consisted his great office 
and mission to mankind. Of that sublime function 
he seems to have been conscious from the com- 
mencement of his ministry, and he always alludes 
to it in the language of the loftiest emotion. The 
declaration of this divine purpose is connected with 
his first public and open avowal of his Messiahship. 
It occurred on the journey in his return from his first 
visit to Jerusalem. He paused for rest and refresh- 
ment at Jacob's well, near Sychar, a city of the 
Samaritans. A woman came out to draw water, 
and he accosted her and drew her into conversation. 
In the course of it he discloses to her his prophetic 
powers, and she takes the opportunity to propose to 
him the great question between the Jews and the 
Samaritans as to the right place of worship. He set- 
tles the question in favor of the Jews, but announces 
the fact, that the importance of that question was 
now at an end ; for the worship of God, instead of 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 235 

being confined, as it had been, to one place and 
nation, was about to be spread over the whole earth. 
" Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye 
shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, 
worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what : 
we know what we worship, for salvation is of the 
Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the 
true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit 
and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship 
him." The woman, hearing him thus discoursing 
of such high matters, and announcing in terms 
scarcely ambiguous the advent of a universal relig- 
ion, is reminded of the Messianic expectations of 
the times, which were shared alike by the Jews and 
the Samaritans. " The woman saith unto him, I 
know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ ; 
when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus 
saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he." 

The consequence of this conversation was, that 
multitudes of the Samaritans thronged around him. 
At their invitation he remained with them two days, 
and many of them believed on him as the Christ. 
To the narrow prejudices of the disciples, this act 
must have seemed almost to be the extension of 
the Messiah's kingdom to the Gentiles, for not only 
had the Jews no dealings with the Samaritans, but 
they were more odious to them than even the hea- 
then themselves. 

That the extension of the true religion to the 
Gentiles dwelt much on the mind of Christ, would 
appear from the reflections which were suggested to 
him by the request of certain Greeks who were come 
to Jerusalem, at one of the feasts, to be introduced 



236 opinions. 

to him. " And there were certain Greeks among 
them, that came up to worship at the feast. The 
same came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Gali- 
lee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Je- 
sus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew ; and again, 
Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered 
them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of 
Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth 
much fruit." The presence of these foreigners seems 
to have suggested to him the thought, that the hour 
was now approaching for the great purpose of his 
mission to be accomplished, the extension of his 
religion to the Gentiles. And that could take place 
by no other means than his death. As long as he 
lived, he could be the Messiah of the Jews only. 
They could conceive of him in no other light than 
as the instrument of their worldly ambition, the 
means of spreading their theocracy over the world, 
with all its peculiar rites and ceremonies. The 
Jews, in crucifying Christ, then, may be said to have 
disappointed their own national hope. As he was 
no longer upon earth, he could not carry out their 
expectations. He was crucified as the Jewish Mes- 
siah to those who believed on him before. But he 
rose from the dead the Messiah of the world. He 
had promulgated his religion. It was purely spirit- 
ual. He had left out of it the whole ritual of the 
Jews. His resurrection was the ratification of the 
religion he had taught. His crucifixion was his own 
highest testimony to it as the faithful and true wit- 
ness. His resurrection was the conclusive and un- 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 237 

answerable testimony of God. Judaism, in the res- 
urrection and ascension of Christ, was abolished 
by the authority of God, the same authority which 
had established it. 

The functions, then, of Moses and Christ, though 
in some respects coincident, were in others diamet- 
rically opposed to each other. Much of the ritual 
of Moses Avas intended to raise up a middle wall 
of partition between Jews and Pagans, in order to 
fence out idolatry, and prevent it from overwhelm- 
ing and destroying the true religion. But that wall, 
while it kept out idolatry, kept in the true religion, 
and prevented it from spreading over the earth. 
After the danger of idolatry was over, and the world 
was prepared to receive the spiritual principles of 
the true religion, then Christ broke down the wall, 
by abolishing the rites and ceremonies of Judaism, 
that the true religion might pervade the world. In 
other words, he preached the essential principles of 
Judaism, that is, of all true religion, without its 
rites and ceremonies. And this was the most es- 
sential part of his mission. 

By these considerations we are enabled to under- 
stand some of the phraseology of Paul, which is 
otherwise exceedingly obscure. To the Ephesians 
he writes : " Wherefore remember, that ye being in 
time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncir- 
cumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in 
the flesh made by hands ; that at that time ye were 
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth 
of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of prom- 
ise, having no hope, and without God in the world ; 
but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were 



238 opinions. 



far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For 
he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath 
broken down the middle wall of partition between 
us ; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even 
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, 
for to make in himself of twain one new man, so 
making peace, and that he might reconcile both 
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain 
the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace 
to you which were afar off and to them that were 
nigh." 

This extension of the true religion through Christ 
to the Gentiles was the theme of Paul's perpetual 
wonder, admiration, and gratitude. It was the 
grand secret of Divine Providence existing in the 
mind of God, but concealed from mankind from 
the beginning of the world. Paul, as the Apostle 
of the Gentiles, was especially intrusted with the 
secret, as he writes to these same Ephesians. " For 
this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for 
you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation 
of the grace of God, which is given unto me to you- 
ward, how that by revelation he made known unto 
me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, 
whereby when ye read, ye may understand my 
knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other 
ages was not made known unto the sons of men, 
as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and 
prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be 
fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of 
his promise in Christ by the Gospel, whereof I was 
made a minister, according to the gift of the grace 
of God given unto me by the effectual working of 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 239 

his power, — unto me, who am less than the least of 
all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach 
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of 
Christ, and to make all men see what is the com- 
munication of the mystery, which from the begin- 
ning of the world hath been hid in God, who cre- 
ated all things, according to the eternal pur- 
pose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

There seems, at first sight, to be a discrepance 
between the language of Paul and the language of 
Christ, in relation to the extension of his kingdom 
to the Gentiles. Paul speaks of it as a mystery, a 
secret which had been hidden in God from the 
beginning of the world, and Christ is represented 
as explaining to his disciples, after his resurrection, 
the prophecies or the revelation of the fact in the 
Old Testament, that "it was necessary that Christ 
should suffer death and rise from the dead, and that 
repentance and remission of sins should be preached 
in his name among' all nations" 

This brings up a most interesting, but difficult 
subject, the subject of prophecy, the Messianic ex- 
pectations of the Jews, and the quotations from the 
Old Testament in the New. 

On taking up the New Testament, the ordinary 
reader immediately encounters quotations from the 
Old. Many of them are cited as prophetic, and are 
said to be fulfilled in events which then took place. 
On a recurrence to the passages in the Old Testament 
from which they are taken, there is often no appear- 
ance of anything prophetic about them. Some are 
historical, some devotional, and some are mere re- 
flections suggested by passing events. The number 



240 OPINIONS. 

of these quotations is very large. In all, they are 
above two hundred and fifty, and, if placed together, 
would fill ten or fifteen pages of our common Bibles. 
Some of them seem to be quoted as proofs of the 
Messiahship of Jesus, which in their original con- 
nection can be made to bear that meaning only by 
the most forced and unnatural construction. The 
quotations are made, not by original translations 
from the Hebrew, but from the version then in com- 
mon use, called the Septuagint, made into the Greek 
some two centuries before, and then well known 
among the Jews. And what increases the difficulty 
is, that wrong translations are sometimes quoted, 
and reasoned from as if they were the true sense. 
What are we to say to these things ? Are they not 
enough to shake our faith in the New Testament 
as containing a revelation from God, an infallible 
rule of faith and practice ? I answer these ques- 
tions by saying, that the interpretation of the Old 
Testament in the New may be removed from the 
sphere of immediate inspiration and implicit faith, 
and placed in that of opinion, custom, reasoning', and 
illustration. I say, moreover, that it might be dan- 
gerous to place them in any other. No defender of 
the Bible gains anything by denying facts, or by 
giving such explanations of them as are wholly 
unsatisfactory. 

Let us then consider what are the facts of the 
case. There are many passages in the New Testa- 
ment quoted from the Old, with the introduction, 
" that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by 
the prophet," which in their original connection are 
not prophecies, and are not even put in the form of 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 241 

prophecy. For instance, Jesus says of Judas Is- 
cariot : " I speak not concerning you all ; I know 
those whom I have chosen ; but that the Scripture 
may be fulfilled, He that hath eaten bread with me 
hath lifted up his heel against me." Now if we 
recur to the ninth verse of the forty-first Psalm, from 
which this is quoted, we find that it makes a part 
of a complaint of David of the treachery of some 
near friend. It would seem to be either a member 
of his family, or a frequent guest at his table, for he 
says : " Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I 
trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up 
his heel against me." This is no prophecy in its 
original connection; it is a simple declaration of an 
historical fact. It is not a prophecy, it is not even 
in all respects a coincidence. There is a circum- 
stance thrown in which prevents its being even a 
coincidence. It was David's familiar friend, in 
whom he trusted, who betrayed him. But Jesus 
never put any trust in Judas Iscariot. He says in 
this very connection, " I know those whom I have 
chosen." And one of the Evangelists testifies that 
" Jesus knew from the beginning who should be- 
tray him." How then did Jesus quote these words ? 
They were evidently suggested to his mind by simi- 
larity of circumstances. 

The Jews, and especially those who were relig- 
iously educated by pious parents, were thoroughly 
acquainted with the Sacred Scriptures. Indeed, 
they were almost the only literature they had. Jo- 
seph us tells us, that a Jew could repeat his sacred 
books almost as readily as he could tell his own 
name. By the similarity of the experience of life 
21 



242 opinions. 

in all ages, it was inevitable that the laws of the 
human mind should suggest, on the occurrence of 
any remarkable event, some corresponding event or 
sentiment recorded in the Bible. That the mind of 
Christ acted in this respect by the natural law of 
association, would appear from the history of the 
Temptation. On the occurrence of the various sug- 
gestions of evil, those passages of the Old Testament 
occur to his mind which are calculated to meet and 
defeat the temptation. , 

The very general manner in which Christ quotes 
the Old Testament may be learned from his conver- 
sation with the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem, 
recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Matthew. " Ye 
hypocrites," said he, " well did Isaiah prophesy of 
you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me 
with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, 
but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they 
worship me, teaching for doctrines the command- 
ments of men." This is' a quotation from the thirty- 
ninth chapter of Isaiah, and is an address to the 
people of his own day. It is a prophecy in no other 
sense than that the scribes and Pharisees were the 
descendants of those ancient Israelites, and what 
was declared of them as an historical fact precisely 
fitted the case of their descendants hundreds of years 
afterwards. 

The same remarks are applicable to the quotation 
in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, made from the 
sixth of Isaiah. " And in them is fulfilled the proph- 
ecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall 
hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall 
see, and shall not perceive; for this people's heart is 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 243 

waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and 
their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they 
should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, 
and should understand with their heart, and should 
be converted, and I should heal them." 

In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, this is a special 
and direct message of God to the Israelites of that 
day, for the prophet begins by telling how he came 
to be specially charged with it. " Also I heard the 
voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and 
who will go for us ? Then said I, Here am I, send 
me. And he said, Go and tell this people." 

It is only by the most liberal construction of 
Christ's language in regard to prophecy, that we 
are able to escape palpable contradiction. We are 
told by John, that, soon after John the Baptist com- 
menced his ministry, the Jews of Jerusalem sent 
priests and Levites to him, to inquire who he was. 
" And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, 
I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What 
then? Art thou Elias ? And he saith, I am not." 
Matthew tells us, that on a certain occasion, the 
disciples said to Christ, " Why then say the scribes, 
that Elias must first come ? And Jesus answered 
and said unto them, Elias truly shall come and re- 
store all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is 
come already, and they have done unto him whatso- 
ever they listed." This would seem to be a palpa- 
ble contradiction. But in another place, Matthew 
relates Jesus to have said something which goes far 
to reconcile these two apparently contradictory pas- 
sages. " For all the prophets and the law prophe- 
sied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is 



244 



OPINIONS. 



Elias which was for to come." The explanation 
lies in the words, " if ye will receive it," showing 
that he is speaking of prophecy in a conventional, 
and not in an absolute sense. As much as if he had 
said, If you choose to interpret the prophecy, in the 
latter part of Malachi, of the coming of Elias as the 
forerunner of the Messiah, then John the Baptist is 
the person alluded to. 

There is another instance, as it would seem, of 
Christ's accommodating his mode of teaching to a 
conventional interpretation of the Old Testament, in 
the twenty-second chapter of Matthew. " While the 
Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 
saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? 
They say unto him, The son of David. He saith 
unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him 
Lord? saying, The Lord said unto my lord, Sit thou 
on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy foot- 
stool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his 
son ? " This is taken from the hundred and tenth 
Psalm. Now there are strong objections to making 
this Psalm a prophecy of the true Messiah. The 
fifth and sixth verses contain such language as this: 
" The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through 
kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge 
among the heathen ; he shall fill the places with 
the dead bodies." Christ is the Prince of Peace, 
and no such language is applicable to him. 

The only explanation that is left is, that Christ 
adopted hypothetically the interpretation which the 
Jews put upon the hundred and tenth Psalm, in 
order, by reasoning with them upon their own prin- 
ciples, to lead them to conceive justly of the spirit- 
ual exaltation and dignity of the true Messiah. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 245 

Such are some of the facts in relation to the quo- 
tations from the Old Testament in the New. They 
must be admitted as facts by every candid expositor 
of the Bible, whatever may be the consequences to 
which they lead. What are these consequences ? 
Ought they to shake our faith in the Divine origin 
of the Christian religion ? I answer, No. The cre- 
dentials of Christ and the interpretation of prophecy 
are two different things. The credentials to which 
Christ appealed were the testimony of John the 
Baptist, his own miracles, and his doctrine. Jesus 
was the Messiah, if he was the Messiah at all, inde- 
pendently of prophecy; that is to say, he was made 
so not by prophecy, but by his mission and endow- 
ments. The prophecies were intended merely to 
connect the old dispensation with the new, to show 
that they are parts of one consistent scheme of 
Providence, which from the beginning has been pre- 
paring the way for the onward progress of the race 
by successive revelations, adapted to the different 
stages of advancement through which mankind were 
destined to pass. 

Two points were actually accomplished by the 
prophecies of the Old Testament, in the expecta- 
tions of the Jewish nation : the persuasion that their 
religion was one day to be extended to all the na- 
tions of the earth, and that this great achievement 
was to be brought about by an individual of exalted 
character and endowments. The predictions of the 
extension of the true religion to the Gentiles are 
frequent and full, but those relating to the person 
and office of the Messiah are comparatively few and 
indefinite. The consequence was, that, while the 
21* 



246 opinions. 

Jews looked forward to the universality of their 
religion, their expectations relating to their Messiah 
were exceedingly erroneous. The only way then 
known or conceived of among men of extending the 
influence of one nation over another was by con- 
guest. And hence the Jews supposed that their 
Messiah was to be a temporal king, and by arms 
and warfare was to extend his dominion over the 
earth. Their Messiah was to be a Messiah of con- 
quest. This, of course, from the nature of things, 
was impossible. True religion cannot be propa- 
gated by conquest. Invasion and violence are the 
last things to produce conviction. True religion 
can be propagated only by conversion, by moral 
means, by testimony, by example. The only Mes- 
siah that was possible was a Messiah of conver- 
sion. The only way in which the true religion, 
which was that of the Jews, could be spread over 
the earth, was by divesting it of its Jewish rites 
and ceremonies, and commending it to the accept- 
ance of the nations by arguments addressed to their 
intellectual, moral, and spiritual nature. 

To accomplish this high purpose, for which the 
world had been preparing from the beginning, noth- 
ing can be conceived more precisely calculated than 
the mission, the character, the life, the teaching, the 
death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth. 
His life was perfect, his credentials sure, his doc- 
trines effectually extracted the pure essence of true 
religion from the rites and ceremonies, the narrow- 
ness and prejudices, of Judaism, and cast it in such 
a form, and connected it with such a simple ritual, 
that it might become the religion of the world. It 



INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 247 

was in this sense that he came, " not to destroy the 
Law and the prophets, but to fulfil." 

The words then of Paul and of Christ may be rec- 
onciled. The prophecies of the Messiah and his 
kingdom had existed since Abraham, but had not 
been understood. Paul had been ignorant of their 
true meaning, because he had adopted the expecta- 
tions of his countrymen of a conquering Messiah. 
His own conversion, and his mission to the Gentiles 
as a preacher, and not as a military commander, 
revealed the whole, and his life was consumed in 
the endeavor to carry out the great purpose of 
Providence, and his mind was filled with wonder, 
and his lips with praise, at the contemplation of the 
grand design. 

This, then, was probably the nature of Christ's 
conversations with his disciples after his resurrec- 
tion, the explanation of those prophecies, which 
they as Jews had misunderstood, — that it was 
necessary, not only according to Scripture, but the 
nature of things, that the Messiah, instead of con- 
quering the world, must die to the earthly hope 
of his countrymen, and, by rising from the dead, 
bring life and immortality to light, and thus become 
the Messiah of the world. 



DISCOURSE XVI 



DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 

I HAVE YET MANY THINGS TO SAY UNTO YOU, BUT YE CAN- 
NOT bear them now. — John xvi. 12. 

Christ here states a principle of wide application 
to divine revelation, that it is imparted, not fully and 
all at once, but gradually, in measures suited to the 
present enlightenment of the human understanding. 
This is a very important principle in the interpreta- 
tion of Scripture, and becomes more and more im- 
portant with the increasing light of science and 
general intelligence. It is the object of revelation 
to give mankind a knowledge of theology and re- 
ligion which they could not have obtained by the 
unaided use of their natural powers. It was impor- 
tant to human welfare that such aid should have 
been given to man in the earlier ages of the world. 
But it was not the purpose of revelation to give to 
mankind supernatural knowledge of physical science. 
That was left to the natural progress of the human 
mind, to the gradual developments of experiment 
and investigation. 

This fact, however, gives rise to no little embarrass- 



DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 249 

merit in the interpretation of the Bible. Religion 
cannot stand alone. It has innumerable relations to 
physical science. A book treating of religion must 
often mention matters relating to the natural universe. 
In the absence of true knowledge,there must of course 
be extant a variety of floating opinions upon scien- 
tific subjects, some true and some false. In teaching 
the truths of religion, the prophet has before him two 
ways of proceeding : either to use the common modes 
of speech on scientific subjects, without affirming 
them to be either true or erroneous, or he must set 
men right on scientific subjects before he can begin 
to teach them on religion. If he were to teach them 
true science first, he would exhaust his time and 
strength before he could begin to enlighten them on 
his real mission. And such is the strength of human 
prejudice on merely scientific subjects, that a prophet 
who taught true philosophy would be almost as 
likely to die a martyr's death, as the inspired teacher 
who should attempt to promulgate a better knowl- 
edge of God and the nature and destiny of the soul. 
At any rate, the union of scientific and religious prej- 
udices would be sufficient to crush any revelation 
of religious truth not upheld by perpetual miracle. 

Accordingly, the prophets who have been commis- 
sioned by Almighty God to enlighten the human 
mind upon the subject of religion, have left human 
science untouched; they used the common language, 
and even conformed their teaching to the common 
apprehension ; they have been contented to teach 
true religion, and leave science to the care of human 
and uninspired intelligence. 

Accordingly, when we open the Bible, we find the 



250 OPINIONS. 

sublimest and truest ideas of God in connection 
with the crudest and most erroneous conceptions of 
geology, astronomy, and even geography. The 
science of the first chapters of Genesis is that of 
the earliest infancy of mankind; but its ethical and 
theological doctrines are most profound, — infinitely 
superior to the best conceptions of the wisest of the 
heathen sages. We have the doctrines of one spirit- 
ual God, the almighty, all-wise, and immutable Cre- 
ator and Governor of the world, the spirituality, the 
freedom, the accountability of the soul, taught in 
connection with the representation of the sun and 
moon as lamps, fixed in the ceiling of the sky, at no 
very great distance from the earth, instead of being, 
as they are, vast bodies, almost inconceivably re- 
mote ; and heaven itself is called a solid partition, 
dividing the waters of the earth from the waters 
which are above the earth, and which sometimes 
descend in rain. 

Just so it is when we open the New Testament. 
We find the same accommodation to the scientific 
ideas of the time. We find a higher and more per- 
fect revelation of religious truth, many express im- 
provements and amendments of the old doctrines, 
but connected with language implying the truth 
of opinions on the nature of diseases, the physical 
structure of the world, and the interpretation of the 
language of the Old Testament, which the light of 
modern science rejects and places among the opin- 
ions of the time, and which Divine Providence did 
not see fit to correct, but left to the gradual amend- 
ment of human investigation. 

It was the universal opinion in the time of Christ, 






DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 251 

that certain diseases, especially those affecting the 
mind, were caused by the possession of devils, or 
demons, the departed spirits of wicked men. The 
phenomena of lunacy were especially calculated to 
seize upon the superstitious element of human na- 
ture. The understanding and consciousness them- 
selves becoming diseased, the person sometimes 
seemed to lose his personal identity, passions were 
developed which had hitherto been repressed or un- 
developed, and he seemed to be animated by another 
soul. Hence the popular superstition, that lunatics 
were possessed by evil spirits. In the cure of such 
persons, they were treated not only medically, but 
magically. Not only were medicines given them, 
but incantations and exorcisms were pronounced 
over them, to dislodge the evil spirits which had ob- 
tained possession. Who these demons were, we are 
told by Josephus in his Jewish Wars, where he is 
describing the virtues of a certain plant. " Yet after 
this pains in getting," says he, " it is only valua- 
ble on account of one virtue it has, that if it be 
only brought to sick persons, it quickly drives away 
those called demons, which are no other than the 
spirits of the wicked that enter intp men that are 
alive, and kill them, unless they can obtain some 
help against them." Josephus tells us concerning 
Solomon, that " he left behind him the manner of 
using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, 
so that they never return ; and the method of cure is 
of great force unto this day, for I have seen a certain 
man of my own country, whose name was Eleazer, 
releasing people who were demoniacal, in the pres- 
ence of Vespasian and his sons and his captains 



252 opinions. 

and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The man- 
ner of cure was this : he put a ring, that had a root 
of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon, to the 
nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out the 
demon through his nostrils ; and when the man fell 
down immediately, he adjured him to return into 
him no more, making still mention of Solomon, and 
reciting the incantations which he had composed. 
And when Eleazer would persuade and demonstrate 
to the spectators that he had such a power, he set a 
little way off a cup or basin full of water, and com- 
manded the demon as he went out of the man to 
overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know 
that he had left the man." Such is the account 
which is given by Josephus — who was nearly a con- 
temporary of Christ, and was so of his Apostles — 
of the superstitions which then prevailed concerning 
the causes and cure of lunacy. 

It would seem by the narratives of the New Testa- 
ment, that at that time the lunatics themselves par- 
took of the superstition, and^ attributing their mental 
alienation to the same cause with the superstition of 
the multitude, supposed themselves to be inhabited 
and actuated by. demons. In the case of the lunatic 
of Gadara, Jesus asked him his name, and instead 
of giving his own name, he said, " My name is Le- 
gion ; for we are many. And he besought him 
much, that he would not send them away out of the 
country." 

Now it is certain that Christ did not attempt to 
correct this superstition. He used no language 
which implied that it was a superstition, and, if the 
narrative from which we have made this extract be 



DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 253 

hot colored by the same superstition, he used lan- 
guage which seems to confirm and authenticate the 
superstition. For the narrative proceeds : " Now 
there was there, nigh unto the mountains, a great 
herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought 
him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may 
enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them 
leave. And the unclean spirits went out and entered 
into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a 
steep place into the sea, (they were about two thou- 
sand,) and were choked in the sea." 

Here, then, is one of the floating opinions or su- 
perstitions of the age, apparently recognized and 
sanctioned by Christ. That superstition has been 
corrected by the progress of science. Lunacy is 
the same thing now that it was then, and pro- 
ceeds from the same mental and physical causes. 
Its phenomena are nearly the same, differing in this 
indeed, that the lunatics themselves no longer, in 
accordance with a once popular superstition, imag- 
ine themselves to be possessed of demons. 

The question is, How could Christ treat this sub- 
ject as he did ? How could he, as a religious 
teacher, forbear to correct an erroneous opinion, and 
set people right as to the conceptions they were to 
entertain with regard to the spiritual agencies which 
God permitted to be exercised in the world ? And 
still more, How could he use language which seemed 
to recognize and confirm an erroneous opinion ? 

This question finds its solution, as it seems to 
me, in the following considerations. It was the dic- 
tate of the highest wisdom in Christ, to raise no 
questions between himself and the Jews except the 
22 



254 opinions. 



main one, whether he were or were not the true, 
expected Messiah. The demoniacs were cases of 
disease presented for cure, and they became the 
tests of his possessing miraculous powers. The 
only point in their cure in which his mission or 
his honor was concerned was that they were really 
cured, and that they were cured by miraculous pow- 
er, the power of God, exercised through Christ, in 
attestation of his divine mission and authority. 

His adversaries tried to avoid the force of this 
testimony, not by denying the reality of the cures, 
but by attributing them to magic, and by saying 
that he cast out demons through power derived 
from the prince of demons. These very cures did 
produce upon the minds of the people the effect that 
was intended. " Then was brought unto him one 
possessed with a devil, blind and dumb, and he 
healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both 
spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, 
and said, Is not this the son of David ? But when 
the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth 
not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of 
the devils." The Pharisees saw the point of the 
argument, they perceived that the people drew the 
right inference from the facts, if they were clearly 
made out, and therefore attempted to turn it aside, 
not by denying the fact, but by pretending that he 
was in league with the evil spirits themselves. 

Jesus immediately answers their objections. " And 
Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, 
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to 
desolation ; and every city or house divided against 
itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, 






DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 255 

he is divided against himself; how shall then his 
kingdom stand ? And if I by Beelzebub cast out 
devils, by whom do your children cast them out? 
Therefore they shall be your judges." They pre- 
tended to cast out demons, and he admits, for the 
sake of argument, that the exorcism was real and 
efficacious ; and, upon the bare facts of the case, he 
had as much reason to accuse them of demoniacal 
conspiracy as they had to accuse him. But my 
agency, says he, is not pretended, it is real, and it is 
a strong proof that I am what I claim to be. "But 
if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the 
kingdom of God is come unto you." 

An occasion had occurred, which afforded him an 
opportunity of removing from himself an unjust 
imputation, merely by enlightening his audience on 
a point of physical science. He might have told 
them, that an alliance with evil spirits was impos- 
sible, because there were no such things in the uni- 
verse, and the diseases thought to proceed from their 
agency were cases of lunacy, and proceeded from 
physical or moral causes. But had he done so, 
what would have been the consequence ? He would 
have raised between himself and the Jews a point 
of physical science, upon which the prejudices, the 
opinions, and superstitions of all mankind would 
have been arrayed against him. He could not have 
convinced them by any physical or physiological 
arguments, and no other effect would have followed, 
than an empty dispute upon a subject foreign to 
his mission, and ending in nothing but alienation 
and resentment, and the cause of religious truth 
would have been embarrassed by an unnecessary 
alliance with a question of physical science. 



256 opinions. 

But it is not probable that the thing would have 
stopped there. It had to do with the superstitions 
of mankind, and all history bears witness, that 
nothing is more dangerous than to come in conflict 
with a popular superstition. Men are much more 
patient when their honesty is called in question, than 
their understandings. He who attacks a popular 
superstition is always accused of impiety, and his 
persecutors imagine that they are doing God ser- 
vice. The human mind has shown itself on no 
subject so liable to complete infatuation, as this 
very subject of demoniacal possession. It is com- 
puted that thirty thousand human beings lost their 
lives on the gallows and at the stake in Europe, in 
the space of a hundred and fifty years previous to 
the commencement of the eighteenth century, for 
the impossible crime of witchcraft. But a little 
more than a hundred and fifty years ago, twenty 
persons were executed as witches and wizards in 
the moral, enlightened, and religious community of 
the Colony of Massachusetts. A clergyman of un- 
blemished reputation, apparent piety, and great use- 
fulness, was torn from his pulpit and his people, 
hung up as a wizard, and his body thrown into a 
hole, like a beast, under the absurd accusation that 
he had sold himself to the Devil ! 

It is impossible for us to say, with certainty, at 
this distance of time, what would have been the 
consequences had Christ denied the reality of de- 
moniacal possession ; but it is not at all improbable 
that it would have led to immediate persecution 
and death. Christ's martyrdom was intended to be 
of another kind. It was reserved for a higher pur- 



DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 257 

pose. It was intended to relate to things exclusively 
religious, his own mission to the world as a teacher 
of religion and spiritual Saviour. It was necessary 
that it should be put out of the power of objectors 
to the end of time to say, that he perished in con- 
troversy which he had raised with the age as to 
the nature of a physical disease. It would have 
been a hindrance, instead of a help, to Christianity, 
to have laid down dogmatically even the truth upon 
the subject of demoniacal possession, until the sci- 
ence of the world had arrived at its recognition. 
More than seventeen centuries passed away before 
this was accomplished anywhere, and but a small 
part of the world is emancipated from the old su- 
perstition to this day. 

There is another opinion, which has largely col- 
ored the language of the New Testament, and which 
was universal at the time of Christ, that concerning 
the localities of heaven and hell. It was the universal 
opinion of mankind at the time of Christ, that the 
world is what it seems to be, a vast plain of indefi- 
nite extent. Heaven stretches out above it with 
equal dimensions. Of its extension upwards, their 
ideas were very obscure. At any rate, they con- 
ceived of God as indeed omnipresent, but especially 
dwelling in heaven, surrounded by hosts of holy 
angels. But being unacquainted with the spherical 
form of the globe, they imagined the plain of the 
earth to be of no great thickness, and under it to be a 
vast space of corresponding dimensions with heaven 
above. It was broad and deep, and comparatively 
dark and unknown. To this place the souls of the 
22* 



258 OPINIONS. 

departed descended, through a path which no human 
eye had seen. 

Although the words which are used to indicate 
this place, both in the Old Testament and the New, 
are rendered in our version hell, they do not corre- 
spond to the ideas which we attach to that word. 
By us it is imagined as exclusively a place of pun- 
ishment. To the ancients, both Jews and heathens, 
it was a common receptacle for the souls of all men, 
both good and bad.. To the heathen, it seems to 
have been the place of their everlasting dwelling. 
To the Jews it was only a temporary abode, from 
which they were to ascend at the general resur- 
rection. This structure of heaven, earth, and hell, 
or the under-world, is shown to be a current belief 
as early as the time of Job. Speaking of the knowl- 
edge of God, he says : " It is high as heaven, what 
canst thou do ? it is deeper than hell, what canst 
thou know ? " To this vast region, the souls of all 
the departed descended. Isaiah speaks of the king 
of Babylon as going down into this place, and as 
he was a mighty conqueror, and overran many na- 
tions and destroyed many kings, his coming is rep- 
resented as producing a great sensation among the 
inhabitants of that subterranean world, who had 
known him as a mighty monarch and terrific con- 
queror on earth. " Hell from beneath is moved for 
thee to meet thee at thy coming ; it stirreth up the 
dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth ; 
it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of 
the nations. All they shall speak and say unto 
thee, Art thou also become weak as we ? art thou 
become like unto us ? " 



DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 259 

Ezekiel also speaks in nearly the same language 
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who came forth from 
that country with an immense army on an expedi- 
tion of conquest. " Son of Man, wail for the mul- 
titude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, 
and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the 
nether parts of the earth, with them that go down 
to the pit." " The strong among the mighty shall 
speak to him out of the midst of hell, with them 
that help him." 

After the intimate intercourse which the Hebrews 
had with the Greeks, although they did not con- 
ceive the general judgment to have taken place, 
they nevertheless seem to have considered the under- 
world to be a state of partial retribution. As the 
Greeks considered Elysium to be divided from Tar- 
tarus by the river Acheron, so the Hebrews repre- 
sented Paradise and Gehenna to be divided by a 
great gulf, but still to be within sight of each other. 
How far these things in the minds of the people 
were literal, and how far only symbolical, it is im- 
possible for us at this distance of time to determine. 
The word Gehenna, which is used for the place of 
torment in the under-world, was the name of a val- 
ley in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, where the 
offal of the city was thrown and consumed by a 
perpetual fire. It is hardly possible to suppose that 
the Jews could have imagined that the same name 
should have been applied to two places, one in the 
upper and the other in the under world. 

These ideas of the infernal regions continued to 
make an integral part of the actual belief of man- 
kind, Christians as well as heathens, for many ages 



260 OPINIONS. 

after Christ, and they were corrected only by the 
geographical discovery that the earth is a sphere, 
and not a plain, its body is solid, and has no such 
cavity as the ancients supposed. And astronomy 
has ascertained the fact, that the point of space 
which is at this moment vertical to us, and must 
have represented heaven to the ancients, in twelve 
hours will be precisely beneath our feet, and take 
the place of the ancient hell. 

Christ taught no doctrine as to the structure of 
the earth, or the physical conditions of the future 
life. It made no part of his mission to do so. As 
we know nothing of the mode of being which the 
disembodied spirit assumes, there is no human lan- 
guage in which such a revelation could be made. 
No language could be adequate or accurate, and 
therefore, in speaking of them, the highest inspira- 
tion could use only similitudes and symbols, not to 
communicate accurate knowledge, for that would 
be impossible, but to suggest an approximate appre- 
hension. The symbols then in use among the Jews 
would be abstractly just as appropriate as any other, 
and in fact were altogether preferable, as having 
been already appropriated to this purpose, and so 
universally understood. 

When, therefore, it came in Christ's way to speak 
of the spiritual realities of the unseen world, the 
future and deserved misery of a selfish, heartless, 
Epicurean, and the compensation which a just God 
will render to the patient sufferer under his myste- 
rious but undeserved afflictions, whom he represents 
under the persons of Dives and Lazarus, he resorts 
for imagery, for locality and circumstances, to the 



DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 261 

universal conceptions of an under-world. Lazarus is 
borne by angels to Abraham's bosom. Dives awakes 
after death in the midst of flames, and sees Lazarus 
afar off in happiness. The rich man, convinced of 
the folly of his sinful life, wishes to warn his sur- 
viving brothers, and to be relieved from his torments 
with a drop of water by Lazarus. But there is a 
great gulf fixed between them, so that the wicked 
can no longer be aided by the benevolence of the 
righteous. 

To the people of that age such language con- 
veyed a spiritual truth, at the same time that it 
conformed to what they supposed to be physical 
realities. To us it conveys the same spiritual truth, 
though the images in which it is embodied, and 
through which it is communicated, are no longer be- 
lieved to correspond to physical reality. 

Here, then, is the distinction which I am en- 
deavoring to inculcate between doctrines and opin- 
ions, fully exemplified and brought out. The future 
misery of a selfish, hard-hearted sensualist, and the 
future happiness of a patient, resigned, and uncom- 
plaining child of affliction, are positive doctrines, true 
then and true for ever. The circumstances, the lo- 
calities, Abraham's bosom and the tormenting flames, 
are images conformed to the floating' opinions of the 
times. Ages went on believing them literally, and 
they would have done so at any rate. Science at 
last undermined the opinion, but it left the doctrine 
standing forth in all its original prominence and 
impressiveness ; for the same intellectual enlighten- 
ment which outgrew the opinion enabled men to 
distinguish between form and substance, between 



262 opinions. 

the illustration and the principle illustrated. It was 
no more necessary that the circumstances and lo- 
calities in the parable of Dives and Lazarus should 
have been literal realities, in order to establish the 
doctrine of future rewards and punishments, than 
that a traveller going from Jerusalem to Jericho, 
and falling among thieves, should have actually 
experienced kindness from a Samaritan, to establish 
the duty of universal kindness to the unfortunate. 

Yet the inveterate propensity of mankind to 
petrify everything into a dogma led the Church to 
involve itself in considerable doctrinal difficulty, by 
converting this ancient opinion in relation to an 
under-world into an article of Christian faith. On 
the cross, our Lord said to the penitent thief: " To- 
day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." This Para- 
dise was a locality in the subterranean world, — the 
receptacle of the souls of the good, — and was con- 
trasted with Gehenna, the place of torment for the 
wicked. The purpose of Christ in using this phra- 
seology was undoubtedly to give the dying man an 
assurance that his penitence was acceptable in the 
sight of God, and that he would be happy in a 
future life. He made use of such language as would 
be most intelligible and striking to a man entertain- 
ing the common opinions of the time. But upon 
this address of Christ, and an obscure passage in 
the First Epistle of Peter, the ancient Church 
founded a clause in what has since been called 
the Apostles' Creed, — " He descended into hell." 
But the progress of science, revealing the true struc- 
ture of the earth, has gradually dispelled the belief 
upon which the clause was founded. And it is 



DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 263 

now discarded from the copies used in most of the 
Protestant churches. 

Such, then, is the legitimate distinction, which is 
ever to be kept in view in reading the New Tes- 
tament, between the doctrines taught and the opin- 
ions alluded to. One is matter of faith, to be re- 
ceived as fact, the other is to be regarded as an 
accidental appendage, used only for illustration and 
impression. 



DISCOURSE XVII. 



A PERSONAL DEVIL. 

YE ARE Or YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL, AND THE LUSTS OF 
YOUR FATHER YE WILL DO. HE WAS A MURDERER FROM 
THE BEGINNING, AND ABODE NOT IN THE TRUTH, BE- 
CAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. WHEN HE SPEAKETH 
A LIE, HE SPEAKETH OF HIS OWN: FOR HE IS A LIAR, 

and the father of it. — John viii. 44. 

Among the opinions entertained by the Jews in 
the time of Christ and his Apostles, which are al- 
luded to in the New Testament, is that concerning 
the existence and agency of an evil being called 
"Satan," or "the Devil," or "the Evil One," or 
" the Prince of the power of the air." 

The allusions to this being, though frequent, are 
of so general and indefinite a character, that it is 
difficult to make out from them all what the con- 
ceptions of that age concerning his nature, history, 
and employments were. They have, however, been 
gathered up by an English poet, a man as wonder- 
ful for his learning as for his genius, and wrought 
into a poem, one of the most marvellous produc- 
tions of all time. Milton, by his Rabbinical as 
well as Biblical learning, and his profound ac- 



A PERSONAL DEVIL. 265 

quaintance with Oriental literature, has gathered 
into the " Paradise Lost" the whole history of that 
being whom the Jews considered as the father of 
evil. 

He was considered as the head and leader of a 
legion of fallen angels. They were once holy and 
pure, but rebelled against God, and were banished 
from heaven, and confined, for the most part, to 
those dark, subterraneous regions which the an- 
cients imagined to lie under the earth, to an equal 
length, breadth, and depth as the heavens above. 
This opinion is referred to in the Epistle of Jude : 
"And the angels which kept not their first estate, 
but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in 
everlasting chains, under darkness, against the judg- 
ment of the great day." 

Another part of this opinion was, with about as 
much consistency as usually pertains to popular 
superstitions, that they were permitted to inhabit 
that part of the atmosphere which is nearest our 
earth. Paul writes to the Ephesians: "And you 
hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and 
sins, wherein in time past ye walked, according to 
the course of this world, according- to the Prince of 
the poiver of the air, the spirit that now worketh in 
the children of disobedience." Philo, a Jewish 
writer, contemporary with Jesus and his Apostles, 
speaks of the whole region of the atmosphere as 
being " filled with spirits both good and bad, called 
by the Jews angels, but by the Greeks demons, some 
tempting men to evil, others prompting them to 
good." Hence the phrase of the Apostle, "that 
now worketh in the children of disobedience." 
23 



266 opinions. 

This function of Satan as the tempter of man- 
kind is frequently alluded to in the New Testament. 
Peter, in his First Epistle, writes on this wise : " Be 
sober, be vigilant, for your adversary, the Devil, as a 
roaring lion, walketh about, seeking- whom he may de- 
vour ; whom resist steadfast in the faith." James 
writes : " Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you." 
Peter says to Ananias : " Why hath Satan filled thine 
heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost?" Jesus says to 
Peter, just before his fall : " Simon, Simon, Satan 
hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as 
wheat." 

In accordance with this idea, the wicked of this 
world, especially the Gentiles, are said to be under 
the dominion of Satan. Said Jesus to Paul : " De- 
livering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, 
to whom I now send thee, to open their eyes, and to 
turn them from darkness to light, and from the power 
of Satan unto God." 

Not only was Satan supposed to be at work to do 
evil, but to prevent good. In the parable of the 
sower, Christ says : " These are they by the way- 
side, where the word is sown ; but when they have 
heard, then cometh Satan immediately, and taketh 
away the seed that was sown in their hearts." 

Not only had Satan the power of enticing men 
to moral evil, but of inflicting upon them physical 
evil, diseases, infirmities, madness. 

Of the woman whom Christ healed of some bodily 
infirmity, under which she had been laboring for 
eighteen years, he said, " And ought not this wo- 
man, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan 
hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, to be loosed 
from this bond on the Sabbath day ? " 



A PERSONAL DEVIL. 267 

To the same effect Peter preaches to Cornelius 
and his friends: " How God anointed Jesus of Naza- 
reth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went 
about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed 
of the Devil, for God was with him." 

Such were the opinions which were current at the 
time of Christ and his Apostles, concerning* the 
Devil. When and where they sprang up, we are 
unable to ascertain. We can trace them to no reve- 
lation. No revelation is made concerning the Devil 
in the New Testament or the Old, nor is there any 
direct teaching concerning him in either. We are 
able to go back, however, to a time when there was 
no such superstition in the world. It arose, we have 
every reason to believe, at a period subsequent to the 
composition of the Pentateuch. There is no allusion 
to any such being in the writings of Moses. 

It does not occur in the place where we should 
have expected to find it if it had been then in exist- 
ence, in the account of the fall of man, the Devil 
being supposed to be the author of all evil, especially 
of its introduction into the world. Indeed, the in- 
vention of the person of Satan, we have every reason 
to believe, had a pious purpose, to account for the 
existence of evil, without any imputation upon the 
character of God. 

Moses resorts to another expedient. Instead of 
saying that Adam, or the first man, being left to the 
freedom of his own will, sinned against God, he at- 
tributes the first conception of sin to the cunning of 
the serpent, the most subtle of all the beasts of the 
field. No mention whatever is made of Satan in the 
history of the transaction. The reason is given vj/ty 



268 opinions. 

the serpent did it. It was not because he was ani- 
mated or inspired by the Devil, but because of his 
subtlety. By giving as the cause the natural cunning 
of the serpent, he not only omits, but denies, the 
other. The conception that a fallen angel had any- 
thing to do in this transaction belongs to a subse- 
quent age. We have no evidence whatever that 
the superstition of the Devil had then come into 
existence. 

Had there been such a real transaction as the 
temptation of Eve by the Devil, it would have been 
perfectly easy for Moses to have so expressed it. He 
could have said, explicitly, that the Devil, a fallen 
angel, being prompted by his natural malignity, in 
the shape of a serpent, or through the agency of a 
serpent, persuaded the woman to violate the com- 
mandment of God. But failing to make the slight- 
est allusion to the Devil, and attributing the first 
temptation fo the cunning of the serpent, we are jus- 
tified in saying that the agency of Satan is not only 
omitted, but denied. 

Moreover, the allegorical nature of the whole nar- 
rative is more than intimated by the selection of the 
serpent. The serpent has no organs of speech. He 
could not speak without a miraculous transforma- 
tion. God alone can change the structure of the 
animals he has made. And Satan, without the help 
of God, could not perform a physical impossibility. 
And after all, the admission that Satan was permit- 
ted to use the serpent would involve the miraculous 
interposition of God to tempt two immortal beings 
to ruin themselves and their whole posterity. 

There is no other resort, then, than to an allegori- 



A PERSONAL DEVIL. 269 

cal interpretation. The tree of knowledge and the 
tempting serpent must be considered as an Oriental 
allegory, — a method of describing the introduction 
of physical and moral evil into the world with the 
least possible imputation upon the character of the 
Supreme Being. 

Such seem to have been the views entertained 
upon this matter by Josephus, the famous Jewish 
historian, contemporary with the Apostles. In his 
paraphrase of the first chapter of Genesis, he says 
not one word of the agency or the being of a Devil. 
The serpent is the only agent of which he speaks. 
Moreover, he says in his preface : " Our Legislator 
speaks some things wisely, but enigmatically, and 
others under a decent allegory, but still explains such 
things as required a direct explanation plainly and 
expressly." If the account of the temptation and 
fall of man be not alluded to here, we are at a loss 
to conjecture to what part of the writings of Moses 
he can refer, for he soon enters upon a literal, his- 
torical narrative. 

There is no reference in any part of the Scriptures 
of the Old Testament to ajiy agency of Satan in the 
temptation of our first parents. The first allusion 
to such an opinion is found in the Apocrypha, in 
the second chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon, a 
book written within a hundred and fifty years of the 
Christian era. " For God created man to be im- 
mortal, and made him to be an image of his own 
eternity. Nevertheless, through the envy of the 
Devil came death into the world ; and they that do 
hold of his side do find it so." So far, then, as we 
are able to conjecture, as this idea is not found in 
23* 



270 OPINIONS. 

the Old Testament, and is found in the book of the 
Wisdom of Solomon, this interpretation of the fall 
must have sprung up some time between the closing 
of the Old Testament and the opening of the New. 

The personality, however, and the function of Sa- 
tan, had become defined as early as the writing of 
the book of Job. In the commencement of that 
book, Satan is represented as presenting himself be- 
fore God among the angels. " There was a day 
when the sons of God came to present themselves 
before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. 
And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest 
thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, 
From going to and fro in the earth, and from walk- 
ing up and down in it." 

There is a marked difference, however, between 
the Satan here introduced and the Devil of the New 
Testament. He acts as a calumniator, and this is 
the literal meaning of the word Devil. This is com- 
mon to both. He inflicts diseases and calamities on 
men, and so has the Devil the power to do the same. 
But there is this clear distinction between them. 
The Satan of the book of Job has no power to tempt 
man to evil in the way of allurement and persuasion. 
The Devil of the New Testament has. The Satan 
of the book of Job has no power to inflict diseases 
and calamities, except by God's permission. " Doth 
Job," said he, " fear God for naught ? Hast thou 
not made an hedge about him and all that he hath." 
That hedge Satan himself could not pass to do him 
wrong. He then goes on to speak of God as alone 
having power to afflict him : " But put forth thy hand 
now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse 



A PERSONAL DEVIL. 



271 



thee to thy face." Satan can do nothing against 
him until he is permitted and commissioned by God. 
" And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he 
hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth 
thine hand." 

Various calamities befell Job, it is intimated, by 
the instrumentality of Satan. He is stripped of all, 
yet maintains his integrity. Satan is baffled, and 
again presents himself with the angels before God 
and confesses his ill success, but suggests that Job 
will be overcome by some bodily infliction in the 
shape of disease. " But put forth thine hand now, 
and touch his bone and his fleshy and he will curse 
thee to thy face." Again, he receives permission to 
afflict him, and with bodily disease. "And the 
Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, 
but spare his life." . 

The Devil of the New Testament is represented 
in a different light. He has the power to tempt men 
directly in the way of allurement and persuasion, 
and he acts independently of the Divine permission ; 
he inflicts diseases at his own pleasure, irrespective 
of the Divine leave, and is subject only to be ar- 
rested in his operations by the power of God. 

I recur thus to the introduction of Satan into the 
book of Job, to illustrate the history of an opinion, 
but not to imply that the author entertained any 
real belief in his existence and agency. There are 
strong reasons for believing that he did not. How- 
ever real may have been the personal history of Job, 
the form into which that history is thrown in the 
Old Testament is that of a poem. All poems, both 
sacred and profane, have their machinery, drawn 



272 opinions. 

usually from the current opinions of the times as to 
supernatual agency. The object of the poem is to 
exhibit and celebrate the triumph of a truly good 
and holy man over trial and temptation. He is to 
be tried, not that he may fall, but that he may stand, 
and appear the more illustrious for having been tried. 
But here occurs a difficulty, on the very threshold of 
the undertaking. Who is to be represented as tempt- 
ing' Job ? Would it be in keeping to represent God 
as tempting him directly ? If God were made the 
immediate agent, then there would seem to be an 
inconsistency, a sort of insincerity, on the part of 
God. On the one hand, he tempts Job to do 
wrong, and on the other, he forbids him to comply 
with the temptation, which he himself places before 
him. Besides, Job is a perfect and upright man. 
Does it seem consistent with perfect justice and per- 
fect goodness to afflict an innocent man, to subject 
him to suffering and loss, merely by way of experi- 
ment? Therefore is Satan introduced, to do that 
which seems, at first sight, to be unworthy of God. 
It is merely an evasion of the old difficulty of the 
origin of evil. And after all, it is only an evasion. 
The causes which Satan puts in operation to try 
Job are all material agents, belonging to God's uni- 
verse, of which he possesses the entire control ; and 
indeed their operation in one case in the narrative 
is attributed immediately to Divine agency. " The 
fire of God has fallen from heaven, and has burned 
up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them." 
It would hardly be consistent to represent the fire of 
God as sent by the Devil. So that, after all, the 
agency of Satan is merely scenic^ and evidently not 



A PERSONAL DEVIL. 



273 



intended to be literal, and to be a matter of religious 
faith or doctrinal inculcation. 

This leads me to say, that, as far as my investi- 
gations have gone, Satan, or the Devil, from the first 
mention made of him in the Bible, has always been, 
very much as he is now, a real person to the unin- 
formed, and a personification to the intelligent. And 
therefore the language concerning him, according to 
the analysis we are pursuing of the New Testament, 
wavers between opinion and mere phraseology, some- 
times arranging itself under one, and sometimes 
under the other. 

That it was at first a mere personification, appears 
from the fact that Satan neither in Hebrew nor in 
Greek has any proper name. There is nothing re- 
vealed concerning him, and he has no history. His 
name in Hebrew was a word signifying an adversary , 
and was long applied to man before it was applied 
to the personification or the author of evil. In the 
Greek it was an accuser or calumniator, and is ap- 
plied to human beings in the New Testament no 
less than to the Prince of Darkness. 

That it was at first used for a mere personification 
of the principle of evil, just as it is now, may be 
made evident by a few quotations. In the Second 
Book of Samuel it is said : "And again, the anger of 
the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved 
David against them to say, Go, number Israel and 
Judah." In the First Book of Chronicles, the same 
transaction is thus related : "And Satan stood up 
against Israel, and he provoked David to number 
Israel.'* 

This difference of representation is very significant. 



274 +■ opinions. 

The book of Chronicles was written many ages 
after the book of Samuel, probably after the return 
of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, whereas 
the book of Samuel was written near the time when 
the events it relates took place. The book of Samuel 
is the original document, and it represents the Lord 
as having moved David to number Israel. This ac- 
count speaks of David as the instrument in the hands 
of Providence of punishing Israel. This was true at 
all events. God uses the wickedness of one man to 
scourge the vices of another. But then this mode of 
representation lies open to the objection, that it 
makes God the author of sin, and then the punisher 
of the very sin which he himself has caused. 

In escaping this imputation, the author of the book 
of Chronicles, who was of the sacerdotal order, and 
a strenuous supporter of the theocracy in the royal 
line of David, must have given as the true cause the 
ambition and presumption of that revered monarchy 
had he not gone behind his agency, and attributed 
this act of disobedience to the instigation of Satan. 

Under such circumstances, it is impossible for us 
to say how far the writer himself had any distinct, 
affirmative idea of the agency of Satan in the 
breach of God's commandment, that Israel should 
not be numbered. To my mind, it has the appear- 
ance of being a mere conventionalism^ the use of a 
common and popular mode of speech, by which the 
origin of all evil is referred to the Devil, or by 
which evil itself is personified and embodied in one 
universal and omnipresent agent, the foe of God 
and man and goodness. 

Some such floating idea as this has prevailed in 



A PERSONAL DEVIL. 275 

many, I might say almost all, nations and ages of the 
world. It is a convenient mode of speech to those 
who do not believe in any real being of this nature, 
as well as to those who do. The phraseology with 
regard to the Devil may never die out. At any rate, 
it will long survive every vestige of actual belief. 

There are many passages of the New Testament, 
in which the use of the words Devil and Satan is 
evidently merely conventional, and is nothing but 
mere phraseology. 

At one period of his ministry, Jesus sent out 
his disciples to preach by themselves. At their re- 
turn, they report their success. They say, moreover, 
" Lord, even the devils [demons] are subject unto 
us through thy name. And he said unto them, I 
beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." This, 
of course, is a figurative expression. No personal 
Satan can be meant here, but only the downfall of 
the kingdom of Satan, which is the kingdom of 
evil. It might seem, at first sight, that Satan is 
here referred to as the head and chief of the devils 
or demons which were cast out. But he goes on 
to say, " Behold, I give unto you power to tread on 
serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of 
the enemy ; and nothing shall by any means hurt 
you." The enemy and Satan are evidently intended 
to be synonymous. " Serpents," then, and " scor- 
pions," and "all the power of the enemy," must be a 
universal and comprehensive expression for all evil, 
and the enemy, Satan, is its symbolic head. The 
causes of evil in this world are not under the con- 
trol of the Devil, but under the control of God ; and 
the production of evil is attributed to Satan to 



276 opinions. 

avoid the apparent impiety of attributing the origin 
of evil to God. 

The like principles are applicable to the interpre- 
tation of the words of the text : " Ye are of your 
father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will 
do. He was a mu^j^rer from the beginning, and 
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in 
him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his 
own : for he is a liar, and the father of it." 

Here are all the forms of reference to a real per- 
son. But if we make the latter part literal, we 
must make the first part so too. Then we shall 
make Christ assert that the Devil was literally the 
father of those Jews with whom he was then con- 
versing. If the first was a figure of speech, we have 
as much reason to believe that the last is so too, 
and that the whole address is a reference, not to an 
historical transaction, but to a popular superstition, 
and was intended to be understood as such. 

Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, writes : " And 
the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet 
shortly." This of course can be no other than a 
figurative and symbolic expression, by which Satan 
is put for all evil. It is merely equivalent to saying, 
" God shall soon give you to triumph over all the 
evils you feel or fear." 

The loose and general way in which the person- 
ality and agency of the Devil are spoken of in the 
New Testament is illustrated in the First Epistle of 
John. " He that committeth sin is of the Devil ; for 
the Devil sinneth from the beginning. For this pur- 
pose the Son of God was manifested, that he might 
destroy the works of the Devil In this the 



A PERSONAL DEVIL. 277 

children of God are manifest, and the children of the 
Devil : whosoever doeth not righteousness is not 
of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." To 
be " of God," to be " a child of God," and " to do 
righteousness," mean all the same thing. " Not to 
do righteousness," to be "a sinner" and " a child 
of the Devil," have likewise all the same significa- 
tion. On both sides, this phraseology has reference 
not to origin, but to character. To destroy the 
work of the Devil is to convert men from sin to 
holiness. Here is the same reference to the intro- 
duction of sin into the world by the instrumentality 
of Satan, which we have seen is not found in the 
first chapters of Genesis, but was an invention of 
a later age. 

It is difficult to decide, in such cases as this, 
whether to set such language down to the account 
of mere phraseology, or to consider it as a reference 
to an opinion then extant in the world. There are 
some cases in which the use of the expressions 
Satan and Devil, for the principle of evil, seems 
to be that figurative mode of speech which is spon- 
taneous under the prompting of strong emotion. 

This seems especially to be the case with refer- 
ence to Judas Iscariot. His treachery was so base, 
his ingratitude so revolting, that to Jesus and his 
Apostles it seemed incommensurate with any com- 
mon epithets of reproach, and utterly unaccountable 
on the supposition of any ordinary motives of con- 
duct. Hence he is introduced as having been in- 
stigated, or rather possessed, by the Devil, and is 
actually called a Devil by Christ himself. 

Luke says of him, when he first conceives the 
24 



278 opinions. 

idea of betraying Jesus : " And the chief priests and 
scribes sought how they might kill him ; for they 
feared the people. Then entered Satan into Judas 
surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the 
twelve. And he went his way, and communed with 
the chief priests and captains, how he might betray 
him unto them." 

John coincides with Luke in representing the be- 
trayal of Jesus to have been brought about by dia- 
bolical agency, but he represents the Devil as hav- 
ing entered into him at another time ; not when he 
first determined to betray Jesus, but when he went 
from the table of the Passover to perpetrate the act. 
Jesus is related to have pointed him out to the other 
disciples by giving him a sop, that is, a piece of 
bread dipped in some species of liquid. " He it is," 
said Jesus, "to whom I shall give a sop, when I 
have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, 
he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And 
after the sop, Satan entered into him." 

This diversity of representation shows that there 
was literally no Devil in the case. It is not histor- 
ical verity which the Evangelists aim to give, for 
then they would have agreed as to the time when 
the possession took place. Their different mode of 
representing it shows that, in both cases, it is a 
figure of speech for the access of those diabolical 
passions, which led one of the companions and dis- 
ciples of the blessed Saviour to betray him to con- 
demnation and death. 

I have now made it evident, I trust, to all who 
have listened to me attentively, that the existence, 
the personality, and the agency of Satan, or the 



A PERSONAL DEVIL. 



279 



Devil, are not doctrines of the New Testament. 
They are nowhere revealed, they are nowhere di- 
rectly taught. They were opinions which sprung up 
among the Jews, just as similar opinions sprung up 
among other nations, in the endeavor to account for 
the origin of evil generally, and especially without 
involving the character of God in its introduction 
into the world. And they are referred to by Christ 
and his Apostles, not to affirm them and fix them 
in the faith of the world, but as the common modes 
of speech upon certain subjects then in use among 
those whom they addressed. 

As philosophical causes, they utterly fail of ac- 
counting for the phenomena in question, and as an 
apology for the existence of evil under the Divine 
government, they subvert^ instead of establishing, 
the equity of God's dealings with men. 

Indeed, the moral argument against them seems 
to me conclusive. One part of the punishment 
which God inflicts upon us for doing wrong is the 
remorse we feel for having violated God's law under 
the impulse of appetites and passions whose strength 
we know, and the allurement of temptations whose 
force we can weigh against the moral power with 
which God has endowed us. If there is another 
agent in the transaction, Satan, an invisible and 
powerful being, with the extent of whose influence 
we are wholly unacquainted, then the torments of 
remorse may be wholly unjust, or at least altogether 
disproportionate to our real guilt. 

It is far more honorable to the Divine government 
to believe that we can know all our spiritual foes, 
and be conscious when we fall through our own 



280 OPINIONS. 

fault, or are borne down by enemies unappreciated 
and unseen. It is more honorable to God to believe, 
with the Apostle James, that, "when a man is 
tempted, he is drawn away of his own lust, and 
enticed " ; and with the Son of Sirach, that " when 
the ungodly curseth Satan, he curseth his own soul." 



DISCOURSE XVIII. 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 

KNOWING THIS FIRST, THAT THERE SHALL COME IN THE LAST 
DAYS SCOFFERS, WALKING AFTER THEIR OWN LUSTS, AND 
SAYING, WHERE IS THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING? FOR 
SINCE THE FATHERS FELL ASLEEP, ALL THINGS CON- 
TINUE AS THEY WERE FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE 

creation. — 2 Peter iii. 3, 4. 

Among the opinions which existed among the 
Apostles and early Christians, traces of which ap- 
pear in the New Testament, is the expectation that 
Christ was to return personally to the earth during 
the lives of the first propagators of Christianity. This, 
of course, cannot be placed among the positive doc- 
trines of Christianity, as no such event ever took 
place. I propose in the two following Discourses to 
consider this whole subject. It is one of great in- 
terest. Gibbon has made it the occasion of one 
of his solemn sneers at the origin and propagation 
of the Christian faith. " In the primitive Church," 
says he, " the influence of truth was very power- 
fully strengthened by an opinion which, however it 
may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, 
has not been found agreeable to experience. It was 
24* 



282 opinions. 

universally believed that the end of the world and 
the kingdom of heaven were at hand. The near ap- 
proach of this wonderful event had been predicted 
by the Apostles, the tradition of it was preserved 
by their earliest disciples, and those who understood 
in their literal sense the discourses of Christ himself 
were obliged to expect the second and glorious coming 
of the Son of Man in the clouds, before the generation 
was totally extinguished which had beheld his hum- 
ble condition on earth, and which might still be 
witness of the calamities of the Jews under Ves- 
pasian or Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen 
centuries has instructed us not to press too closely 
the mysterious language of prophecy and revelation ; 
but as long as for wise purposes this error was per- 
mitted to subsist in the Church, it was productive 
of the most salutary effects on the faith and practice 
of Christians, who lived in the awful expectation of 
that moment when the globe itself, and all the vari- 
ous races of mankind, should tremble at the appear- 
ance of their divine judge." 

In treating of this subject, I shall first inquire, 
Are there traces of such an expectation in the New 
Testament ? Was such a doctrine taught by Christ ? 
How came the Apostles to entertain it ? Did they 
teach it as a positive doctrine, — a part and parcel 
of Christianity ; or did they refer to it as an opinion, 
concerning which they themselves were by no means 
certain ? 

That the Apostles themselves cherished such an 
expectation cannot, I think, well be denied. I begin 
with Paul. To the Corinthians he writes : " So that 
ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 



283 



our Lord Jesus Christ." Now the most obvious 
construction of this passage is that which makes it 
refer to an event which was to take place in that 
age, within the lifetime of at least some who then 
belonged to the Christian Church. 

To Titus he writes: "For the grace of God that 
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teach- 
ing us, that, denying all ungodliness and worldly 
lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, 
in this present world ; looking for that blessed hope, 
and the glorious appearing of the great God and 
our Saviour Jesus Christ" This certainly describes 
an event which was expected to take place at any 
time, and might even be daily looked for. The con- 
nection of the appearance of God with the appear- 
ance of Christ has a bearing which is important, 
but which I cannot now stop to develop. 

To Timothy he writes: "I charge thee therefore 
before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his 
kingdom, preach the word; be instant in season, out 

of season For I am now ready to be offered, 

and the time of my departure is at hand. I have 
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up 
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and 
not to me only, but unto all them also that love his 
appearing." This was written when Paul was now 
an old man, and did not expect to live long ; and 
although it seems to express a doubt whether he 
should live to see the second coming of Christ, he 
seems to speak of other Christians, his contempora- 



284 opinions. 

ries, who would still live on in the constant expecta- 
tion of that joyful event. 

To the Philippians he writes : " For our conversa- 
tion is in heaven, from whence we look for the Sav- 
iour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our 
vile body, that it may be fashioned like his glorious 
body, according to the working whereby he is able 
even to subdue all things unto himself." 

Who they were to whom the Apostle refers as 
destined to be changed, we may learn by reference 
to the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. There 
it is said : " Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall 
not ail sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a mo- 
ment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump ; 
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be 
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" 
There is a passage to the same effect in the First 
Epistle to the Thessalonians. " For the Lord him- 
self shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ; 
and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we 
which are alive and remain shall be caught up to- 
gether with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air ; and so shall we be ever with the Lord." 

Language could scarcely be stronger to prove that 
Paul anticipated the return of Christ to the earth in 
his own day, or at least within the lifetime of some 
who then composed the Christian Church. 

Let us now see what were the sentiments of the 
other writers of the New Testament. Of them, take 
first the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. In 
the tenth chapter he says to the Hebrews : " For ye 
have need of patience, that, after ye have done the 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 285 

will of God, ye might receive the promise ; for yet a 
little while, and he that shall come will come, and 
will not tarry. 1, In the same chapter he likewise 
says : " Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves 
together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one 
another; and so much the more as ye see the day 
approaching? 

A day which they saw approaching could not be 
far off, and that coming must be near for which they 
were exhorted to wait with patience. 

Let us examine the writings of Peter, that we 
may learn what were his expectations. He exhorts 
the Christians to whom he writes : " Wherefore gird 
up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the 
end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the 
revelation of Jesus Christ? In another place he 
says : " Beloved, think it not strange concerning the 
fiery trial which is to try you, as though some 
strange thing had happened unto you; but rejoice, 
inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; 
that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad 
also with exceeding joy." The revelation of Christ's 
glory does not seem to be a thing to be made known 
to them at death, but during their natural lives. 

But there is a passage still more decisive : " But 
the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, 
and watch unto prayer." An event for which they 
were continually to watch, could not have been any 
other than one which was expected to take place, at 
least, in that age. 

Let us now turn to the Apostle John. In his First 
Epistle he says : " And now, little children, abide in 
him ; that, when he shall appear, we may have confi- 



286 opinions. 

dence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." 
In another place, u Beloved, now are we the sons of 
God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; 
but we know that, when he shall appea?", we shall be 
like him; for ice shall see him as he is." This coin- 
cides with the quotation which we made from Paul, 
in which he speaks of Christ's appearing and chan- 
ging our vile body, and making it like his own glo- 
rious body. 

There remain but three writers more concerning 
the affairs of the Christians after the resurrection of 
Christ, — James, Jude, and the author of the Book of 
Revelation. The sentiments of the last two are ob- 
vious, and it remains only to make an extract from 
James. " Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the 
coming- of the Lord. Behold the husbandman wait- 
eth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long 
patience for it, until he receive the early and the 
latter rain. Be ye also patient, for the coming of the 
Lord draweth nigh." 

It is needless to multiply further quotations from 
the New Testament, in order to show that it was 
the unanimous expectation of the writers of the 
apostolic age, that Christ was to return to the earth 
at least before all that generation should have gone 
down to the grave. It is needless, likewise, to add, 
that no such event really took place. That genera- 
tion all passed away, many of the Christians by an 
awful exit from this world, — the cross, the axe, and 
flames. Still the Saviour came not. That century 
elapsed, and there was no appearance of Christ 
" from heaven with flaming fire, taking vengeance 
on them that knew not God and obeyed not the 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 287 

Gospel of Jesus Christ." Time has rolled on, and 
eighteen centuries have passed, without that dis- 
closure which seems to be so clearly predicted. 

And what are we to say ? Are we to confess what 
Gibbon insinuates, that the non-fulfilment of this 
expectation is fatal to Christianity as a revelation 
from God ? It would be so, if we were to consider 
the Scriptures, as they have generally been consid- 
ered, a homogeneous whole, every part of which is to 
be considered as doctrine, for which immediate in- 
spiration is responsible. 

Hence the necessity of the distinction which in 
these Discourses we are attempting to establish, be- 
tween the doctrines of the Gospel and the opinions 
of the Apostles and of the age. I say, then, that 
Christ never taught such a doctrine, and if the Apos- 
tles derived it from his language, it was a misappre- 
hension. And more than this, I say, if their lan- 
guage is minutely examined, they do not make it a 
positive prophecy or prediction, that Christ was to 
return to the earth in their day, but only mention it 
as an expectation, a probability, whose speedy oc- 
currence they judged to be consequent on certain 
other facts, which were sure, and really existed. 

In order to form a determinate and satisfactory 
judgment of this matter, it will be necessary to ex- 
amine minutely the prophetic language of Christ. 
Not only did Christ fill the office of a teacher, a law- 
giver, the founder of a new and universal religion, 
but he likewise acted as a prophet in the strictest 
sense of the term. He predicted future events, which 
could be anticipated by no human foresight. The 
purpose for which he did so is expressly declared. 



288 opinions. 

" Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come 
to pass, ye may believe that I am he." It was that 
his disciples might have not only the evidence of his 
superhuman doctrines and his miraculous works, 
but his fulfilled predictions, to establish their faith in 
him as the Messiah, in that and all succeeding ages. 

The first that occur are his predictions concerning 
his death, and its attending circumstances of time, 
place, and manner. Had he not done so, it would 
have seemed to his. disciples, that he was overtaken 
by an untimely and unexpected catastrophe. His 
ministry might have seemed incomplete and termi- 
nated by disappointment. But since it w T as foretold, 
it appears as a part of the Divine plan, not only fore- 
seen, but a necessary element of his mission upon 
the earth. 

Just before he left them, his soul seems to have 
been wrapt in visions of futurity. As he glanced 
his prophetic eye along the vista of coming ages 
and the boundless expanse of infinite duration, 
three events especially attracted his notice ; the de- 
struction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish religion 
and nation, the establishment and universal spread 
of his own religion, and the retributions of eternity. 
In describing these, he uses mainly the language of 
prophecy, which is the language, not of literal de- 
scription, but of symbols. 

There is a close analogy, in respect of structure, 
between the close of the old dispensation and the 
new ; and one may be profitably studied in illustra- 
tion of the other. After Moses had promulgated 
and recorded the law, and had established the civil 
and ecclesiastical constitution of the nation of Israel, 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 289 

just before he left them, he assumed the attitude of 
a prophet. His mind passes down through the ages 
to come, and delineates rapidly, but with a wonder- 
fully graphic power, the chief events of the history 
of a people who had not yet been established in 
their destined seats. He describes their declensions 
from the worship of the true God, and the punish- 
ments which he was to inflict upon them in conse- 
quence. He goes so minutely into their history, as 
to describe their invasion by cruel and unknown for- 
eigners, and their being led away into captivity. He 
describes their penitence and their restoration, with 
an exact correspondence with their real history. 

From this he ascends, by language highly poetic 
and symbolic, to assert God's general providence, 
and to foreshow his acts as the Judge and Re- 
warder of men. 

" To me belongeth vengeance and recompense ; 
their foot shall slide in due time ; for the day of 
their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall 
come upon them make haste. For the Lord shall 
judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, 
when he seeth that their power is gone and there 
is none shut up or left. And he shall say, Where 
are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, 
which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank 
the wine of their drink-offerings? Let them rise and 
help you, and be your protection. See now that I, 
even I, am he, and there is no God with me. I kill 
and I make alive, I wound and I heal, neither is 
there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I 
lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. 
If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take 
25 



290 OPINIONS. 

hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine 
enemies, and will reward them that hate me." 

Here, you perceive, is an ascent from specifics to 
generals ; from the special providences of God to- 
ward the nation of Israel, to the general and all- 
comprehending idea of his universal government, in 
which God is presented as the sole, supreme, un- 
equalled and unapproachable Jehovah, the Law- 
giver, the Judge and Rewarder of men, but dis- 
pensing his retributions with rigor, especially with 
reference to the Mosaic institute, which forbids the 
worship of other gods, and confines it solely to him- 
self. 

In a like manner, Christ, after having promulgated 
the New Dispensation, assumes, among the last acts 
of his public ministry, the attitude of a prophet, and 
foreshows the future fortunes of his religion in the 
world ; first, his own death, resurrection, and ascen- 
sion, and the bearing which these events will have 
upon the reception and power of his religion in the 
world; then its promulgation among all nations; 
then its final establishment by the destruction of 
Judaism, its only rival ; and, finally, the future retri- 
butions of eternity, which were to take place ac- 
cording to the principles of his religion. 

Concerning events which were immediately to 
take place, and on which the faith and conduct of 
his disciples at the outset of their enterprise were to 
depend, he is full and explicit. Concerning events 
of a remoter period, he is more figurative and ob- 
scure. On the evening of his apprehension, and not 
a day before his death, he said to his disciples : " All 
ye shall be offended because of me this night ; 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 291 

for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and 
the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. 
But after I am risen again, I will go before you 
into Galilee." In a solemn prayer to God, he pre- 
dicts his own death as a thing immediately to take 
place. " Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy Son, 
that thy Son may glorify thee." " And now i" am 
no more in the ivorld, but these are in the world, and 
I come to thee" 

He foretold the effect which his death, his resur- 
rection, and ascension would produce upon his fol- 
lowers. His. death would make them profoundly 
sad, and humble them before a scoffing and tri- 
umphant world. " Verily, verily I say unto you, that 
ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall re- 
joice." But his resurrection was to reanimate and 
reassure them. " And ye shall be sorrowful, but 
your sorrow shall be turned into joy." " And ye 
now, therefore, have sorrow ; but I will see you 
again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no 
man taketh from you." 

He told them that it was necessary that he should 
go away, and be removed from the earth, for till he 
was taken away from their earthly hopes, they could 
not understand his religion nor their own mission; 
or, in his phraseology, receive " the Spirit of truth." 
" It is expedient for you that I go away ; for if I go 
not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; 

but if I depart, I will send him unto you 

When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide 
you into all the truth." 

This prophecy was literally and immediately ful- 
filled. Fifty days from Christ's crucifixion saw an 



292 opinions. 

entire change in his disciples. Truth bursting upon 
their minds from the cross, the tomb, the resurrec- 
tion, and ascension of Christ, transformed them 
from worldly, ambitious, timid, unintellectual, and 
obscure men, into courageous, firm, energetic teach- 
ers of a spiritual faith, and from the selfish seekers 
of earthly power to the founders of the kingdom 
of God. 






DISCOURSE XIX 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 

NOW WE BESEECH YOU, BRETHREN, BY THE COMING OF OUR 
LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND BY OUR GATHERING TOGETHER 
UNTO HIM, THAT YE BE NOT SOON SHAKEN IN MIND, OR BE 
TROUBLED, NEITHER BY SPIRIT, NOR BY WORD, NOR BY 
LETTER, AS FROM US, AS THAT THE DAY OF CHRIST IS AT 
HAND. LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU BY ANY MEANS : FOR 
THAT DAY SHALL NOT COME, EXCEPT THERE COME A FALL- 
ING AWAY FIRST, AND THAT MAN OF SEN BE REVEALED, 

the son OF perdition. — 2 Thessalonians ii. 1-3. 

The next prophecy of Christ, in trie order of time, 
after those relating to his death, his resurrection and 
ascension, and the commencement of the preaching 
of his religion by his Apostles, was his prediction of 
its extension to the Gentiles. This is the more re- 
markable, as it was wholly contradictory to the deep- 
seated prejudices of the Jewish nation, and the ex- 
pectations of the Apostles themselves concerning the 
kingdom of the Messiah. They had been educated 
to expect a Messiah who should conquer, but not one 
who should convert, the world. So wholly averse 
were their minds from this arrangement, that, not- 
withstanding Christ's final commission to them was, 
25* 



294 opinions. 

" Go, teach all nations" nothing of the kind was done 
or attempted by them for the first ten years. The bit- 
terness of the Jewish feeling upon this point may be 
learned from Paul's defence of himself at Jerusalem, 
when he was apprehended under suspicion of intro- 
ducing heathens into the temple. He tells them that 
Christ sent him to preach to the heathen : " And he 
said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee far hence 
unto the Gentiles. And they gave him audience 
unto this word, and .then lifted up their voices and 
said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it 
is not fit that he should live." 

That the contempt of the Pagans for the Jews did 
not fall behind the hatred of the Jews for the Pa- 
gans, all contemporaneous literature bears witness. 
It was quite as improbable that a Jew should have 
been willing to impart the blessings of the Messiah's 
kingdom to the Gentiles, as that the Gentiles should 
have been willing to receive a religion from the 
Jews. And yet, under these circumstances, Christ 
prophesies, " And this Gospel of the kingdom shall 
be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all 
nations ; and then shall the end come." Nearly ten 
years passed away before the Gospel was preached 
to the heathen at all, and then it required a special 
miracle to instruct Peter, that he was no longer to 
call any man common or unclean, and the Holy 
Ghost poured out on Cornelius and his companions 
was the only thing which could convince him that 
God was no respecter of persons. The miraculous 
conversion of Paul, and his mission to the Gentiles, 
settled the question, and fulfilled the prophecy of 
Christ ; for he himself preached the Gospel in nearly 
all the principal cities of the Roman empire. 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 295 

Next are Christ's prophecies of the destruction of 
Jerusalem, the ruin of the Jewish nation, and the 
close of the Mosaic dispensation as the religion rec- 
ognized by God. The principal predictions relating 
to this event were uttered during his last visit to Je- 
rusalem, and many of them within sight of the tem- 
ple. " And Jesus went out, and departed from the 
temple: and nis disciples came to him for to show 
him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said 
unto them, See ye not all these things ? ' Verily I 
say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone 
upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And 
as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples 
came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall 
these things be ? And what shall be the sign of thy 
coming, and of the end of the world? " 

This question indicates the origin of the misappre- 
hension under which the disciples afterwards labored 
as to futurity through their whole ministry. It con- 
tains two phrases which were equivocal, "the coming 
of Christ," and " the end of the world." The word 
here rendered " world " had two meanings, as like- 
wise the Hebrew word to which it corresponds. It 
means sometimes the material universe, but more 
often an age or a dispensation of religion. And the 
coming of Christ is used to indicate no less than four 
different epochs in the New Testament, — his assump- 
tion of his office, the preaching and establishment of 
his religion in the world, the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, and the final consummation of all things, end- 
ing in the general judgment. 

The establishment of Christ's religion in the world 
is called by him " his coming." When Jesus was 



296 opinions. 

arraigned before the Sanhedrim, the supreme coun- 
cil of the Jewish nation, at the head of which sat 
the high -priest, he was solemnly interrogated, — in 
fact, in modern phraseology, put on oath, — to say, 
whether he were the true Messiah. "Under the so- 
lemnity of an oath, he answers in the affirmative. 
" And the high-priest answered and said unto him, 
I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us 
whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Je- 
sus saith unto him, Thou hast said : nevertheless, 
I say unto you, From this time shall ye see the 
Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, 
and coming in the clouds of heaven." To our cold 
Occidental imaginations this seems to be the lan- 
guage of ecstasy or enthusiasm. Who ever saw 
Christ, either in that or any other age, literally sit- 
ting on the right hand of power, and coming with 
the clouds of heaven ? What did Christ mean by 
it ? He was speaking to highly educated Jews, who 
were familiar with Oriental imagery, and the highly 
symbolic language of prophecy. He adopted the 
most impressive- way of saying, " I affirm under 
oath that I am the Messiah ; and not only so, the 
proof does not depend on my word. From this time 
you shall see my cause and religion so owned and 
aided by God, that it shall be as evident to you that 
I am the Messiah, as it would be were you to see 
me sitting on God's right hand, and coming in the 
clouds of heaven." 

Such figures of speech are not stronger than he 
used on other and similar occasions. When Na- 
thaniel declared himself convinced that Jesus was 
the Messiah, by the fact that he was able to tell him 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 297 

where he had been, when it was a physical impossi- 
bility that he could have seen him with his bodily 
eyes, Jesus answered him, " Because I said unto 
thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? 
Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he 
saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
Hereafter," or, as in the other case, " From this 
time ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of 
God ascending and descending upon the Son of 
Man." Did Christ's disciples ever see this predic- 
tion literally fulfilled ? Did they ever see the heav- 
ens literally opened, and the angels passing and 
repassing from heaven to Christ, and from Christ to 
heaven ? They saw no such thing. But they did 
see such a succession of miracles, of interruptions 
of the ordinary laws and course of nature, wrought 
by the power of God in attestation of Christ's 
divine mission, that his being the Messiah was just 
as manifest to them, as if they saw a constant 
stream of angels sent down by God to Christ, and 
returning again from him to heaven. 

When the seventy returned and announced their 
success as the preachers of the Gospel, Christ is re- 
ported by Luke to have said, " i" beheld Satan as 
lightning fall from heaven" Do we believe that 
Christ intended this language to be interpreted as a 
literal representation ? None but the most ignorant 
can do so. What, then, do we consider it ? We 
interpret it as a strong figure, representing the 
downfall of evil under the influence of the Gospel 
now beginning to exert its redeeming and renovat- 
ing power. 

After considering Christ's use of such bold figures 



298 opinions. 

as the descent of angels from heaven in the sight of 
men, and of Satan's being seen to fall like light- 
ning from heaven, we learn to judge how- far he is 
to be taken literally when he tells the Sanhedrim 
that they shall see him seated on the right hand of 
power, and coming- in the clouds of heaven. If one 
may be interpreted by a succession of miracles, and 
the other of the destruction of the kingdom of evil, 
then may the third be interpreted to mean the spirit- 
ual coming of Christ's kingdom upon earth, and the 
testimony of God's ordinary and miraculous provi- 
dence to its truth. 

Especially is this the case, when we may con- 
sider the language of Christ as combining both a 
prophecy and a claim. Almost all the language 
which was extant in the time of Christ in relation 
to the new dispensation, then shortly expected to 
appear, was derived from the Old Testament. The 
portion of it which had the most influence in form- 
ing that phraseology, and was most often quoted, 
was the seventh chapter of Daniel. In that there oc- 
curs this passage : " And I saw in the night visions, 
and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the 
clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, 
and they brought him near before him. And there 
iv as given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
that all people, nations, and languages should serve 
him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which 
shall not be destroyed." When Christ quoted the 
language of this passage, and applied it to himself, 
he claimed to be the Messiah, as well as prophesied 
that he would be recognized as such. 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 299 

Christ had come in a literal sense already, for he 
was then upon the earth. He often speaks of him- 
self as having done so. " The Son of Man came 
eating and drinking." The coming of which he 
spoke to the Sanhedrim was metaphorical, in the 
sense of identifying himself with his religion. That 
made very little progress before his resurrection and 
ascension. Indeed, previously to that time, his own 
disciples did not understand it. His ascension was 
immediately followed by the conversion of three 
thousand. The supper, the grand rite of Christi- 
anity, the bond of Christian union, being the com- 
memoration of Christ's death, could not be cele- 
brated before that event had taken place. Then, 
in fact, the Christian Church, which is the true king- 
dom of God, began to exist. Christ risen and as- 
cended was more powerful here upon the earth 
than he had been daring the days of his flesh. It 
was to this, probably, that he alluded on the even- 
ing before his crucifixion, when Judas had gone out 
to betray him. " Now is the Son of Man glorified." 
It was this exaltation of Christ of which Paul 
spoke when he wrote to the Ephesians : " Which he 
wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the 
dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heav- 
enly places, far above all principality, and power, 
and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
named, not only in this world, but in that which is 
to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and 
gave him to be head over all things to the church." 
This corresponds almost in expression to one clause 
of Christ's prediction to the Sanhedrim : " From 
this time, ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the 



300 OPINIONS. 

right hand of power." And in all these cases it is 
merely a figurative expression for being exalted to 
great authority. 

It was to this coming that Christ referred when 
he sent out his disciples to preaoh in the different 
cities of Judaea, during his own ministry. " These 
twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, say- 
ing, Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and into any 
city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather 
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." " But 
when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into 
another; for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have 
gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be 
come." The coming of the Son of Man here re- 
ferred to must have been his resurrection and ascen- 
sion, because these events terminated this first com- 
mission. This first commission was restricted to 
the land of Palestine and the Jews. The Gentiles 
were especially excluded. After his resurrection he 
commissioned them anew. " Go, and teach all na- 
tions." 

Another epoch in the establishment of Chris- 
tianity was the destruction of Jerusalem and the 
final dispersion of the Jewish nation. Without 
this event Christianity could not have been estab- 
lished at all. Christianity was intended to super- 
sede Judaism. " The Law and the prophets were 
until John; since that, the kingdom of God is 
preached." If Judaism bad not passed away, 
Christianity could not have come ; for it was 
plainly irrational to suppose that God could have 
two recognized religions on earth at the same time. 
As long as the temple stood, and its rites were 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 301 

daily celebrated as of old, the converts from Judaism 
were only half Christians. It was only the converts 
from Paganism who were Christians in full, who 
observed and practised the rites of Christianity, and 
nothing else. The converted Jews who dwelt in 
Palestine went on to observe the Mosaic law, cir- 
cumcised their children, and kept the seventh day 
as a Sabbath. Not only so, not only were they 
zealous observers of the Law themselves, but they 
were bent on bringing all the converts from Pagan- 
ism under the same yoke. As long as the temple 
stood, although Christianity was established by its 
own independent evidence, Judaism was not abol- 
ished. It apparently enjoyed the Divine sanction. 

The Jews had rejected Christ as the Messiah 
pointed out in their sacred Scriptures. The highest 
authority, the grand council of their nation, had de- 
cided against his claims. Their decision was a mat- 
ter of record. The controversy, so to speak, between 
God and the Jews then was, whether he were the 
true Messiah or not. It was partially decided by 
his resurrection, ascension, and the miraculous aid 
granted to his Apostles. But to put the thing be- 
yond all dispute, it was necessary that Judaism itself 
should be destroyed by the entire destruction of the 
temple of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the na- 
tion, never more to be re-established in their native 
seats. Then Christianity reigned alone, the claims 
of Christ were vindicated, and his kingdom came 
with power and great glory. 

Let us recur to his prophecies of that event. It 
is recorded of him, that at his last visit to Jerusa- 
lem, as he approached within sight of the city, " he 
26 



302 OPINIONS. 

wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, 
at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto 
thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. 
For the days shall come upon thee, that thine ene- 
mies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass 
thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall 
lay thee even with the ground, and thy children 
within thee ; and they shall not leave in thee one 
stone upon another ; because thou knewest not the 
time of thy visitation." 

Afterwards, from the Mount of Olives, he por- 
trayed at large the destruction of the city, and the 
distress of the nation. " And when ye shall see 
Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that 
the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which 
are in Judaea flee to the mountains ; and let them 
which are in the midst of it depart out; and let 
not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. 
For these be the days of vengeance, that all things 

which are written may be fulfilled For there 

shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon 
this people ! And they shall fall by the edge of the 
sword, and shall be led away captive into all na- 
tions ; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the 
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of na- 
tions, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 
men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking 
after those things which are coming on the earth ; 
for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then 
shall they see the Son of Man coming- in a cloud with 
power and great glory" 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 303 

This is from the Gospel of Luke. Matthew and 
Mark report him to have said also, " And the stars 
shall fall from heaven." All report him to have sub- 
joined, " Verily I say unto you, This generation shall 
not pass away till all these things shall be ful- 
filled." Of course they must have seen " the Son 
of Man coming in a cloud with power and great 
glory," in the sense here intended. It was probably 
to this coming that Christ alluded when he said, on 
a certain occasion, " Verily I say unto you, There 
be some standing here, which shall not taste of 
death till they see the Son of Man coming in his 
kingdom." I say it is probable that it is to the de- 
struction of Jerusalem that he here alludes, for the 
coming which followed his death and resurrection 
took place within two months, and it would not 
have been spoken of as a thing to be noticed, that 
some standing there should live two months. It 
applies more naturally to the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, which took place about thirty-seven years 
afterwards; and John, of all the disciples, was the 
only one who lived to see it It may have been to 
the protracted life of John, and his living to see 
Jerusalem destroyed, that Christ alluded, when he 
said of him to Peter, when he inquired what was 
to become of John, " If I will that he tarry till I 
come, what is that to thee ? " 

If John was the person alluded to on the former 
of these occasions, and his living to see Jerusalem 
destroyed on the latter, what coming of Christ did he 
witness ? Did he see him coming in a cloud ? No 
such historical event is recorded. What did he see, 
then? He saw Christianity propagated far and 



304 OPINIONS. 

wide, from the remote East to Western Europe. 
He saw the only impediment to its firm establish- 
ment overcome, in the final overthrow of Judaism, 
its only formidable rival in the. world. In that he 
saw the prophecies of Christ fulfilled, he saw his 
claims to the Messiahship vindicated by the destruc- 
tion of the nation which had denied and crucified 
him. He saw that admixture of Judaism with Chris- 
tianity, which was caused, upheld, and perpetuated 
by the continuance of the temple and the temple 
service, in the process of being purged away. He 
saw, in fact, the establishment of Christianity as 
God's only recognized religion upon earth. 

How came the disciples, then, to make the double 
mistake, that Christ was to come in person, and 
that the world should be destroyed within the life- 
time of that generation? The answer is, that it 
was by too literal an interpretation of the highly 
figurative and symbolic language of prophecy. The 
war of the elements, the darkening of the sun and 
moon, the falling of the stars, the shaking of the 
powers of heaven, portended, not physical destruction, 
but moral and civil revolutions. And so they had 
done in the prophecies of the Old Testament. There 
was no destruction of the physical world predicted. 
The very opposite, the long continuance of the world, 
would naturally be inferred from the fact, that Christ 
professed to be promulgating a religion which was 
the destined possession of all nations. Nothing 
could be morally more improbable, than that this 
religion should be made universal, and the world be 
destroyed in the same age. Christ had said to his 
disciples concerning the woman who anointed his 



' 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 305 

head with the precious ointment, " Wheresoever this 
Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there 
shall also this which this woman hath done be told 
for a memorial of her." Such language as this does 
not intimate the approaching destruction of the 
world, but rather its long continuance. 

There is, moreover, in this very prophecy, a clause 
which might have set them right as to the approach- 
ing end of the world, and plainly indicates that the 
present order of things was to remain for ages to 
come. Instead of the world's coming to an end 
when Jerusalem was to be destroyed, Christ says, 
"And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gen- 
tiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" If 
the world itself was to come to an end in the catas- 
trophe spoken of in the twenty-fourth chapter of 
Matthew, then there would be no Jerusalem to be 
trodden down of the Gentiles, and no Gentiles to 
tread down Jerusalem. Periods of no less duration 
are here alluded to than those which measure a 
nation's existence. 

There were, likewise, many analogous passages 
in the Old Testament, with which the Jews were 
familiar, whicl^ might have served to interpret 
Christ's language in the New, — passages which de- 
scribe the coming of God with awful commotions 
of external nature, where nothing is meant but 
the common course of his providence, vindicating 
the innocent and punishing the guilty; and a great 
disturbance, a total overthrow and destruction of 
physical nature, often means nothing more than 
great social and political changes and calamities, 
or personal deliverance. 
26* 



306 OPINIONS. 

In the eighteenth Psalm, David describes in highly- 
poetical language his deliverance from some great 
danger or calamity. " The sorrows of death com- 
passed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me 
afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about ; 
the snares of death prevented me. In my distress 
I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God ; he 
heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came 
before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook 
and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved 
and were shaken, because he was wroth. There 
went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of 
his mouth devoured ; coals were kindled by it. He 
bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness 
was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and 
did fly, yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. 
He made darkness his secret place ; his pavilion round 
about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the 

skies The Lord also thundered in the heavens, 

and the Highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals 
of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered 
them ; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited 
them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and 
the foundations of the world were discovered at thy 
rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy 
nostrils. He sent from above, he took me, he 
drew me out of many waters. He delivered me 
from my strong enemy, and from them which hated 
me ; for they were too strong for me." 

Now we have no reason to believe that this 
material description is anything other than a highly 
poetic representation of some remarkable deliver- 
ance of David by the ordinary providence of God, 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 307 

nor is it intended to be. David did not actually 
see God coming in cloud and tempest, with thunder 
and lightning, to his deliverance. The mountains 
were not moved, nor the waves of the sea so divided 
that the interior of the solid earth was seen. But 
because his deliverance was providential, he chose 
to describe God as the agent with such poetic em- 
bellishments as befitted the subject. 

There is in the prophet Isaiah the same use of the 
images of the destruction and change of the mate- 
rial creation to symbolize great national calamities. 
Edom was to be devastated by an invading army, 
many were to be slain, the cities were to be burned, 
and the land made desolate. Bat it is described 
in images highly poetical. " The mountains shall 
be melted with their blood. And all the host of 
heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be 
rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall 
down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a 
falling fig from the fig-tree. For my sword shall be 
bathed in heaven ; behold, it shall come down upon 
Idumaea, upon the people of my curse, to judgment." 
"And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, 
and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land 
thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be 
quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up 
for everP And yet, no such physical changes ever 
took place. It is all figurative, and symbolically rep- 
resents the destruction of a country by an invading 
army. 

Accustomed to such prophetic language as this, 
there is no good reason why the disciples should 
have interpreted Christ's coming to the destruction 



308 



OPINIONS. 



of Jerusalem of his personal appearance, or the fall- 
ing of the stars and the shaking of the powers of 
heaven as an actual and literal dissolution of the 
earth and the physical universe. We are justified, 
then, I think, in saying, that Christ predicted no such 
thing, and its non-fulfilment is no argument against 
the truth of Christianity. 

Finally, the Apostles themselves did not teach the 
personal return of Christ to the earth in their own 
day as a positive doctrine of Christianity. On the 
contrary, they propose it as an opinion or judgment 
of their own, grounded on the language of Christ. 
Christ himself declared that he was ignorant of the 
precise time when Jerusalem was to be destroyed. 
" Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, 
not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, 
but the Father." He moreover asserts, that it was 
not the intention of God to give the Apostles any 
accurate information as to the events of futurity. 
After his resurrection, they ask him, " Wilt thou at 
this time restore again the kingdom to Israel ? And 
he said unto them, It is not for you to know the 
times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his 
own power." 

Accordingly, Peter, in his second speech to the 
Jews, a few weeks after this, when Christ had gone 
to heaven, puts an indefinite period between the as- 
cension of Christ and his return to the earth : " Re- 
pent ye, therefore, that your sins may be blotted out, 
when the times of refreshing shall come from the 
presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, 
which before was preached unto you; whom the heav- 
en must receive until the times of the restitution of all 



THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 309 

things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all 
his holy prophets since the world began." The lan- 
guage is sufficiently indefinite here, you perceive, to 
extend over ages, and even to the consummation of 
the history of the world. And in his old age he writes 
to his converts, in answer to those who objected that 
the Divine promise had failed, and began to inquire, 
" Where is the promise of his coming? " — " But, be- 
loved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day 
with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day? According to this mode of reckon- 
ing, thousands of years might elapse before the event 
predicted should take place. 

John gives it as his judgment, not as a prophecy 
of his own or of Christ, that the world was draw- 
ing to an end, because something else had taken 
place which it was generally understood was to 
precede the end which Christ had foretold. " Little 
children, it is the last time, and as ye have heard 
that Antichrist shall come, even now there are 
many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the 
last time." Paul, in that passage of his Epistle to 
the Thessalonians selected as the text of this Dis- 
course, warns them not to be disturbed by any 
alarm propagated among their brethren, that the 
coming of Christ was near at hand. " Now we be- 
seech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto 
him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be 
troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by let- 
ter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 
Let no man deceive you by any means ; for that day 
shall not come, except there come a falling away 



310 



OPINIONS. 



first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of 
perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above 
all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that 
he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing 
himself that he is God." 

This prophecy has not yet been understood, — a 
plain proof that it has not yet been fulfilled. 

I trust I have said enough to show that the 
personal appearance of Christ in the age of the 
Apostles was not a. doctrine of Christ, nor was it 
prophecy ; but only a vague expectation of the 
Apostles, an opinion founded on his language. 



DISCOURSE XX. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

FROM THAT TIME JESUS BEGAN TO PREACH, AND TO SAY, 
REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. — 

Matthew iv. 17. 

In the analysis of the New Testament in which 
we have been engaged, three elements have already- 
been discussed, — historical facts, doctrines, opin- 
ions. There remains a fourth element, Phraseol- 
ogy, — modes of speech belonging to the language, 
the nation, and the age. These are carefully to be 
observed, as they have been a fruitful source of 
error and misapprehension in other nations and 
other times. 

Much of the language of Christ and his Apostles 
was conventional. That is to say, it was not in- 
vented and introduced by Christ for the first time. 
It was adopted by Christ, because it was already in 
use, and applied to purposes for which he used it. 
It was better and more to his purpose, therefore, 
than a language altogether new. But he often 
took the liberty of using the old language with a 
new signification, corresponding to the facts of the 
case. 



312 PHRASEOLOGY. 

Christ's mission, or the New Dispensation, was 
not a sudden, unanticipated phenomenon upon the 
earth. The world had been preparing for it from 
the beginning. The whole Jewish religion had 
been introductory to it. Judaism was the stock 
upon which Christianity was engrafted, and the 
previous existence of Judaism made Christianity 
possible. Had Christ gone into any heathen nation, 
and attempted to set up his religion, the attempt 
would have been wholly abortive. He would have 
been obliged to have gone back and begun at the 
beginning, by laying again the foundation of the 
patriarchal and Mosaic religions. He would have 
been obliged first to destroy and root up idolatry, 
and establish the knowledge and worship of the 
true God. Otherwise, when he told them that he 
brought them a message from Jehovah, they would 
have been obliged to ask him who the God was 
from whom he professed to come. His phraseology 
would have been altogether new, and he would 
have been compelled to interpret and explain almost 
every sentence he uttered. I do not say too much, 
then, when I affirm that, without the basis of Juda- 
ism, the establishment of Christianity would have 
been impossible. It is true, the Gospel was propa- 
gated in heathen lands, but it was at first only 
through the synagogue. In every considerable city 
of the Roman empire, the Jews had established their 
synagogues, and it was into them that the Apostles 
first entered to preach Christ and Christianity. The 
Jews first listened, then the proselytes, then the 
heathen. What would have taken place everywhere 
without the preface of Judaism, we see by what 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 313 

happened when Paul accidentally found himself 
called upon to preach on Mars' Hill, at Athens, to 
an audience of idolaters and polytheists, unenlight- 
ened by one ray of supernatural revelation, though 
the most intellectual and literary people upon earth. 
His eloquent discourse, instead of producing convic- 
tion, excited nothing but wonder and ridicule and 
scorn, and he barely escaped a civil prosecution as a 
setter forth of strange gods. 

The Jews were prepared for the mission of Christ, 
not only by previous knowledge and culture, but by 
previous expectation. They had been expecting a 
new order of things for centuries. That new order 
of things they had denominated " the kingdom of 
God," or "the kingdom of Heaven," Heaven being 
put for God. This phraseology was founded mainly 
on two passages of the book of Daniel, the first of 
which is found in the second chapter: " And in the 
days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a 
kingdom which shall never be destroyed ; and the 
kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it 
shall break in pieces and consume all these king- 
doms, and shall stand for ever." The other is found 
in the seventh chapter : " I saw in the night vis- 
ions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came 
with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient 
of days, and they brought him near before him ; and 
there was given him dominion, and glory, and a 
kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages 
should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting 
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his king- 
dom that which shall not be destroyed." The book 
of Daniel embodies and represents the Messianic 
27 



314 PHRASEOLOGY. 

expectations of the Jews, and most of the language 
current at the time of Christ, concerning the Mes- 
siah and his kingdom, is taken from it. 

This expectation had become so intense in the 
time of Christ, that it frequently gave rise to politi- 
cal commotions. The nation was then in a state of 
bondage, being a conquered province of the Roman 
Empire. The Jews had lost their independence, and 
were subjected to the most grinding oppression. 
Their cities and fortresses were garrisoned by Roman 
armies, their citizens were subjected to enormous 
taxation, their temple and their sacred rites were ex- 
posed to wanton insult, and the Roman eagles, 
everywhere conspicuous, were at once the symbols 
of their national degradation, and of the idolatry 
which their national religion taught them to hold in 
utter abomination. 

Under these circumstances, the Messiah was ex- 
pected both as a religious reformer and a temporal 
monarch. But the pressing evils and calamities of 
the times led the Jews to fix their hopes on their 
expected Messiah chiefly in his temporal relations, as 
a king: He was not only to deliver his countrymen 
from a foreign yoke, but was to carry conquest into 
foreign lands. It was with this expectation, prob- 
ably, that the disciples at first followed Christ and 
attached themselves to his cause. It was evidently 
with this hope, that Salome, the mother of James 
and John, during his last journey to Jerusalem, re- 
quested of him "that her two sons might sit the one 
on his right hand, and the other on his left, when he 
came to the kingdom." And even after his resur- 
rection, his disciples inquired of him, "if he were 
now about to restore the kingdom to Israel." 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 315 

The ideas of the Jews in relation to their expected 
Messiah were theocratical. They looked upon their 
own nation as under the especial providence and 
government of God. God had been their Lawgiver 
at first, and so he was their invisible Sovereign and 
Ruler perpetually. Their kings ruled only under 
him. Saul and David were chosen, not by popular 
election, but by God. God, by his prophet Samuel, 
anointed them both. When Samuel went to the 
family of Jesse to choose a king from among his 
sons, Eliab, his eldest, was first brought before the 
prophet, and, seeing his commanding appearance, he 
said: " Surely the Lord's Anointed," in Hebrew, the 
Lord's Messiah, "is before him." This, in the Greek 
translation, which had been chiefly in use among 
the Jews for two hundred years before the time of 
the Saviour, is rendered Christos or Christ. So 
Samuel in that translation is made to say, " Surely 
the Lord's Christ is before him." 

So, in the second Psalm, one of the kings of Israel 
seems to be addressed as God's Messiah ; in the 
Greek, Christos , or Christ. " Why do the heathen 
rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The 
kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take 
counsel together, against the Lord and against his 
Anointed," his Messiah, or Christ, " saying, Let us 
break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords 
from us." That this was spoken primarily of one of 
the kings of Israel appears clearly from the manner in 
which he is to maintain his authority over the nations. 
" Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou 
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." But 
this king is spoken of in the same Psalm as not only 



316 PHRASEOLOGY. 

God's Anointed, but as God's Son. God was the 
supreme King of Israel, and all the human kings of 
that nation were said to reign under him. As an 
earthly monarch exalts to the throrte his eldest son, 
and makes him partner of the power while he yet 
lives, that he may establish his authority while his 
own is still vigorous, so is Jehovah represented as 
raising a king of Israel to the throne, as it were, to 
sit at his right hand. It is not at all improbable, 
that the oracle contained in this psalm is alluded to 
in the one hundred and tenth : " Jehovah said unto 
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make 
thine enemies thy footstool." 

In after ages, as the expectation of the Messiah 
grew more and more intense, these two Psalms were 
interpreted as prophecies of him. Especially were 
they so interpreted after the nation was conquered, 
and groaned under a foreign yoke, for they seemed 
to promise deliverance from their enemies and ven- 
geance against their oppressors. In the second 
Psalm, too, the Jews found a strong reason for their 
expectation of a conquering Messiah, in the sentence, 
" Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for 
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
for a possession." 

That such expectations were cherished by the 
Jews concerning their expected Messiah, and that 
such epithets were applied to him, we have abundant 
evidence in what was said and done to him at the 
commencement of his ministry, before his language 
could have produced any influence on public opin- 
ion and popular phraseology. When Nathaniel had 
been introduced to him as the Messiah, but as the 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 317 

son of Joseph, and perceived in him the evidence of 
the possession of miraculous powers, he exclaims : 
" Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King 
of Israel." He was to be the king, under God, of 
the kingdom of heaven. He was to reign first over 
the Jews, and then, by conquest, over all the nations 
of the earth. 

These preconceived opinions were in great degree 
erroneous, the meanings attached to this various 
phraseology were false, and Christ might have re- 
pudiated them all, and adopted other modes of 
speech which were literally and philosophically cor- 
rect. He was not literally to be a king. He was 
not to live in a splendid palace, but, while the foxes 
had holes and the birds had nests, he was not to 
have where to lay his head. He was to be clothed 
in no royal robes, his vesture was to be of the plain- 
est material, and the only crown he was to wear 
was to be a crown of thorns. He was to have no 
gorgeous court, composed of the rich, the beautiful, 
and the gifted, no officers partaking of his splendor 
and participating in his power, but he was to be 
surrounded by a few fishermen and peasants, unedu- 
cated and unrefined, as poor and humble as himself. 
But had he rejected the current phraseology, he 
would have thrown away the only means of con- 
necting the old religion with the new, the only ma- 
terial for bridging over the chasm which must inter- 
vene between Judaism and Christianity. 

He adopted the current phraseology of his country- 
men in relation to himself and his mission, and ac- 
commodated to it much of his own mode of repre- 
sentation. He spoke of the new dispensation as 
27* 



318 PHRASEOLOGY. 

"the kingdom of Heaven," and himself as " a king," 
and some of his most impressive discourses derive 
no small part of their power to awe the mind from 
the regal drapery with which they are clothed. But 
as the old conceptions were erroneous, it became 
necessary for him to clothe the old language with 
new ideas. He announced that " the kingdom of 
God was at hand," but then in his first discourse he 
immediately proceeded to rectify the popular error, 
and to describe the kingdom of God as something 
entirely different from what his countrymen had 
expected. 

They expected that their Messiah was to appear 
as a king, and immediately put himself at the head 
of the nation, mount the throne of David, fix his 
court at Jerusalem, re-establish the Jewish religion 
and theocracy, reform the morals of the nation, drive 
out the Romans, and conquer and rule the world, as 
the Romans had done before him ; and compel man- 
kind either to adopt the Mosaic religion and become 
Jews, or to live in a state of subjugation and de- 
pendence. In this kingdom, all Jews, from the very 
nature of the case, were, by right of birth and na- 
tionality, to participate. The task of Jesus was to 
disabuse them of their errors in the use of the old 
phraseology, and gradually to insinuate the truth in 
their place. 

John the Baptist had already begun this work of 
correction. He had commenced his ministry by 
proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven 
is at hand." He told his countrymen, by his rustic 
imagery, that as Jews they had nothing to expect in 
the new dispensation. The qualifications for the 



THE KINGDOM OP GOD. 319 

Messiah's kingdom were personal, not national. 
u Bring forth fruits meet for repentance. And think 
not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to 
our Father; for I say unto you, that God is able of 
these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And 
now the axe lieth at the root of the trees ; therefore 
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is 

hewn down and cast into the fire Whose fan 

is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge his 
floor, and gather the wheat into the garner, but he 
will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 

These instructions were followed up by the first 
discourses of Christ, looking in the same direction. 
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn. 
Blessed are the meek, the peace-makers, the mer- 
ciful. Blessed are they which are persecuted for 
righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of 
God." The whole discourse delineates a spiritual 
religion within the soul of man, not the outward or- 
ganization of a national government. 

Nothing could have been more different than the 
kingdom of God which the Jews had in their hearts, 
and that which Christ described and which he came 
to establish. Their expectations were almost wholly 
false. Yet nothing could have been more unwise 
than it would have been for him to have told 
them so directly. It was the part of wisdom to in- 
form them by degrees, and indirectly by implication. 
Hence his frequent use of parables. Through them 
he might indirectly insinuate the truth into their 
minds, without shocking their prejudices or pro- 
voking their resentment. Thus his own disciples, 



320 PHRASEOLOGY. 

who originally came to him with ambitious views 
and purposes, were gradually transformed into spirit- 
ual and religious men, and prepared to be the heralds 
to the world of a pure and spiritual religion ; and the 
crowd who came about him, and from time to time 
desired to crown him as their king and make him a 
political adventurer, remained to be edified by his 
instructions, and to confess that " his word was with 
power," and that " never man spake like this man." 
This was his meaning when he explained to his dis- 
ciples the reason why he spoke to the people in 
parables. It is not, as it might at first seem, that 
they might not understand him, for in that case he 
would not have spoken at all. But it was because 
they could not bear the direct statement of the 
naked truth. It was that they might receive the 
truth without offence, that seeing they might see 
and not perceive, that hearing they might hear and 
not understand, any further than their prejudices 
would permit for the time being. Such were his in- 
structions to the plain, rural population of Galilee. 
When he went up to Jerusalem, he encountered per- 
sons of a different stamp, men of learning and cul- 
ture and intellectual acuteness, such as Nicodemus 
and the Pharisees. 

Nicodemus comes to him, and avows his belief in 
him as a distinguished prophet. But he comes in 
the night, and evidently with the idea that he might 
still remain a Jew and a Jewish magistrate, and yet 
become a member of the new dispensation, or a 
subject of " the kingdom of God," if he were not 
already so by virtue of his birth as a Jew. 

He is informed at once, not rudely, coarsely, and 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 321 

categorically, but gently, delicately, and by impli- 
cation, that his expectations are erroneous. He is 
not in the kingdom of God, as he might suppose, 
by virtue of his birth as a Jew, of the seed of Abra- 
ham, nor does the kingdom of God belong to the 
Jews as a nation. He must be born into it by out- 
ward profession and by spiritual renovation. He 
must be born of water and spirit. The kingdom 
of God is as invisible as the wind. It is of the 
mind. It is coincident with no outward, visible or- 
ganization. It consists not of the seed of Abraham, 
but of God's spiritual children. And he then goes 
on to tell the astonished Rabbi, that the Messiah, 
so far from reigning on earth as a temporal king, is 
to be "lifted up," like the serpent in the wilderness, 
to be crucified, and to save men, not by the arm of 
physical strength, but by the power of faith. And 
more than all this, the true Messiah is not to be a 
Messiah of conquest; he does not come " to condemn 
the world," to conquer and destroy the nations, but 
that the nations may believe on him and be saved. 

As the ministry of Jesus advanced, he proceeded 
gradually, but steadily, to undermine those expecta- 
tions which the ambition and worldliness of the 
Jews had led them to fix upon their Messiah, and 
which they hoped to realize in him. By his teach- 
ing, and especially his parables, he opened to their 
minds the fact, that what they looked for as an out- 
ward kingdom was in fact to be a spiritual religion. 
The kingdom of God was to be established, not by 
violence, by revolution, or by conquest, but by 
moral means. It was to grow as the grain of mus- 
tard seed grows, from being the smallest of all seeds, 



322 PHRASEOLOGY. 

to become a tree, so that the fowls of heaven come 
and lodge in the branches of it. It was to spread 
abroad, not with force and noise and commotion, 
but as a little leaven, which a woman took and 
hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was 
leavened. 

Towards the latter end of his ministry, it was in- 
quired of him directly when the kingdom whose 
advent he proclaimed should come, when it should 
assume an outward form and manifestation; and he 
plainly told the inquirers, that there was to be noth- 
ing of the kind; that his kingdom was to have noth- 
ing of a temporal, worldly, or material character, 
but related entirely to the hidden man of the heart. 
There was to be no gathering together to him as to 
a military leader or worldly monarch, and he cau- 
tions his followers against those false Christs who 
should attempt to make such a demonstration. 
" And when he was demanded of the Pharisees 
when the kingdom of God should come, he answered 
them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with 
observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, 
Lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within 
you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will 
come when ye shall desire to see one of the days 
of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it." When 
these political troubles should come on, which 
were to end in the destruction of the Jewish people, 
they would earnestly desire the personal presence, 
guidance, and protection of the Messiah, and they 
would be tempted to run after this impostor and 
that, who should give out that he was the expected 
deliverer ; but they were to giye no heed, for there 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 323 

was to be no personal, local manifestation, but the 
coming of the Son of Man was to be like the light- 
ning, undoubted in its certainty, not local in its 
manifestation, but illuminating equally a wide ex- 
tent of country, and shining around the whole hori- 
zon. " And they shall say to you, See here ! or, 
See there! go not after them nor follow them. For 
as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part 
under heaven, and shineth unto the other part under 
heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in his day." 
The time at length came, however, when he was 
compelled to be more explicit. The national disap- 
pointment of the Jews in Jesus as their expected 
Messiah led to his rejection, and persecution as an 
impostor. His spiritual teaching, his open rebukes 
of the vices of the age, and his denunciation of 
those in power, stirred up an enmity to him that 
could be appeased only with his blood. It was 
easy enough to obtain his condemnation before the 
Jewish council, for most of them hated him cor- 
dially. But they had not the power of life and 
death, and it was necessary, in order to destroy him, 
to obtain the concurrence of the Roman governor. 
There was some difficulty in doing this, for the 
Roman governor knew little or nothing of the pe- 
culiarities of their religion, or of their private griev- 
ances against Jesus. It was necessary to convict 
him of a capital offence against the Roman Empire. 
The readiest way to do this was to prove that he 
had pretended to be a king, and thus had been 
guilty of treason. This accusation of sedition they 
did not hesitate to make, though they knew it to be 
utterly groundless, — though they knew that he had 



324 PHRASEOLOGY. 

repeatedly refused to be made a king, when he might 
have done so. In this accusation they had a double 
purpose. They intended to bring Christ into an in- 
extricable dilemma. In professing to be the Messiah 
according to the Jewish conceptions, he had claimed 
to be " King of Israel," which was one of the titles 
of the Messiah. If, to escape the accusation of se- 
dition against the Romans, he had denied that he 
was a king, then the Jews would have had it to say, 
that, when brought to the test, and in peril of his 
life, he renounced the very claim he had set up, and 
was, after all, not the Messiah he had professed to be. 

This ensnaring accusation was made against 
Christ, not in his presence, but in his absence. 
When brought before Pilate, he was taken into 
the judgment-hall, but his accusers could not enter, 
for fear of being denied. Pilate therefore went out 
to them, in order to learn the charges brought against 
the prisoner. The accusation was, " We found this 
fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give 
tribute to Caesar, saying, that he himself is Christ, a 
MngP "Then Pilate entered into the judgment-hall 
again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou 
the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest 
thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of 
me ? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew ? Thine own 
nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto 
me. What hast thou done?" 

From the avowal that he was a king, though 
wholly untrue in the sense of the accusation, Jesus 
could not shrink, without apparent contradiction, 
without abandoning the position he had assumed. 
He therefore explained himself, by declaring what 



THE KINGDOM OP GOD. 325 

his kingdom was not. "Jesus answered, My king- 
dom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this 
world, then would my servants fight, that I should 
not be delivered to the Jews ; but now is my king- 
dom not from hence." 

This would have been sufficient in justice to escape 
the charge of sedition, and here the matter might-have 
rested. But Pilate goes on to inquire how he could 
be a king, and still have no earthly kingdom. " Pi- 
late therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? " 
The answer of Christ is sublimely wise and sub- 
limely true, and furnishes the key to all the regal 
phraseology which Jesus applied to himself, from the 
beginning of the Gospel to the end. " Thou sayest 
well that I am a king. To this end was I born, and 
for this cause came I into the world, that I should 
bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the 
truth heareth my voice" As much as if he had said : 
" Truth is the true sovereign of the human mind and 
the true ruler of mankind. It is irresistible, it is uni- 
versal. Every good and true man obeys it, and pre- 
cisely to the measure of his goodness and truth. I 
am the organ and the instrument of establishing the 
truth in the earth. I am its witness, and shall be its 
martyr. It transcends the limits of time and space. 
Its empire extends wherever man is man. Its do- 
minion, therefore, may spread from sea to sea, and 
from shore to shore. Its dominion may be universal 
and perpetual; for truth is as eternal as the soul of 
man." 

Finally, the figure of the new dispensation as the 
kingdom of heaven, and himself as its king under 
God, becomes the source of the scenic sublimity of 
28 



326 PHRASEOLOGY. 

Christ's description of the final judgment. In Ori- 
ental countries, at the time of Christ, the institution 
of civil government had never advanced beyond its 
primitive, simple, patriarchal form. There was no 
division, as there has been in the western world, in 
more advanced stages of culture and civilization, of 
the functions of government into the legislative, the 
judicial, and executive. The sovereign was every- 
thing, lawgiver, judge, and executive. All these 
functions were implied and comprehended in the 
very name of king. Christ, while on earth, as the 
king and head of the kingdom of Heaven, promul- 
gated his laws : he laid down the principles of his 
government. It was necessary, in order to complete 
the functions of a king, that he should represent 
himself as a judge. He had declared what actions 
should be rewarded and what punished, what dispo- 
sitions should prepare the soul for the society of 
himself and the saints in light, and what must ne- 
cessarily banish their possessor into the companion- 
ship of the vile. He therefore proceeds to predict 
the final issue of things under various figures. At 
one time, the kingdom of Heaven is a. feast, at which 
the faithful shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac 
and Jacob, but the unworthy shall be shut out in 
outer darkness. At another time it is a bridal sup- 
per, to which the watchful and diligent came early 
and were admitted, but the negligent and the sloth- 
ful came late, and were excluded. At another, it is 
a wedding feast, to which one came without a wed- 
ding garment, and was cast out. To sum up all in 
one tremendous scene, and set forth by the most 
impressive representation the winding up of this 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 327 

world's probation, he represents himself to be, as 
he had been the lawgiver, so likewise the judge of 
mankind. He selects one virtue as the representa- 
tive of the whole character, one grace as the pledge 
of the existence of all the rest ; that love which is the 
fulfilling of the Law, that regarding of our neighbor 
as ourselves, which is more than all burnt-offerings 
and sacrifices, as the criterion of fitness for heavenly 

" When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, 
and *ill the holy angels with him, then shall he sit 
upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall 
be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them 
one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep 
from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his 
right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall 
the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the world. 
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I 
was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stran- 
ger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed 
me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, 
and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous 
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an 
hungered, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee 
drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took 
thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw 
we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Ver- 
ily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them 



328 PHRASEOLOGY. 

on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his an- 
gels. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no 
meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink ; I 
was a stranger, and ye took me not in ; naked, and 
ye clothed me not ; sick, and in prison, and ye vis- 
ited me not. Then shall they also answer him, 
saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or 
athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, 
and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he 
answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, 'Inas- 
much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, 
ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into 
everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life 
eternal." 

I ought, perhaps, in conclusion, to say, that there 
is a diversity of opinion as to the meaning of this 
scenic representation. By most interpreters, it has 
been made to refer to the final judgment of all 
mankind. In that case, it must include those who 
had lived and died before Christianity was intro- 
duced, and the stress of the thought turns on the 
assembling of the whole human race before the 
throne of the Judge. 

There are strong objections, it is said, to this 
view of things. It involves the conception, either of 
the sleep of the soul for ages and centuries, or its 
conscious existence in the unseen world for an equal 
length of time, unjudged and uncertain of its final 
condition. Either of these suppositions is naturally 
improbable. 

Then it is to be observed, that the condition of 
the persons judged is made to turn on the manner 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 329 

in which they have received and treated Christ's 
disciples, who seem to be introduced under the 
designation of " these my brethren." It is therefore 
thought by many, that Christ refers in this dra- 
matic prophecy to the results which will attend the 
reception or the rejection of his religion in the 
world, and the good or ill treatment of those whom 
he sends forth to teach it to the nations. Those 
who receive his Apostles, and the glorious religion 
they teach, shall be for ever blessed and happy, and 
those nations or individuals who reject the Gospel, 
and maltreat its ministers, shall suffer untold mis- 
eries, here and "hereafter. 

These diversities of opinion, however, do not affect 
the subject of this Discourse, the figure of speech by 
which Christ denominates himself a King. It is as 
the Promulgator of the Truth and Law of God, by 
which mankind ought to be governed, and by which 
they are hereafter to be judged. 



28 



DISCOURSE XXL 



CHRIST A KING. 

JESUS ANSWERED, MY KINGDOM IS NOT, OF THIS WORLD: 
IF MY KINGDOM WERE OF THIS WORLD,- THEN WOULD MY 
SERVANTS FIGHT, THAT I SHOULD NOT BE DELIVERED TO 
THE JEWS: BUT NOW IS MY KINGDOM NOT FROM HENCE. 
PILATE THEREFORE SAID UNTO HIM, ART THOU A KING 
THEN? JESUS ANSWERED, THOU SAYEST WELL THAT I AM 
A KING. TO THIS END WAS I BORN, AND FOR THIS CAUSE 
CAME I INTO THE WORLD, THAT I SHOULD BEAR WITNESS 
UNTO THE TRUTH. EVERY ONE THAT IS OF THE TRUTH 

heareth my voice. — John xviii. 36, 37. 

I gave, in one of the preceding Discourses, some 
remarks on the relation of Moses and the Jewish 
dispensation to the age. I endeavored to show that 
the Mosaic institutions were shaped to meet the 
condition and the wants of the infancy of the world. 
Religion has no necessary connection with any form 
of civil government. Yet Moses, when he estab- 
lished a religion, established a government, not be- 
cause there is any necessary connection between 
the two, but because the Israelites, having been 
slaves, had no nationality and no civil government, 
and were about, for religion's sake, to commence a 



CHRIST A KING. 331 

national existence. It was a rude and barbarous 
age, and therefore sacrifices were adopted or re- 
tained. Church and state were united, because 
neither of them was strong enough to stand alone. 

The rites of that religion were imposing, gor- 
geous, magnificent, because nothing else could com- 
mand the reverence of barbarians, nothing else could 
impress a coarse, uncultivated people. A taber- 
nacle glittering with gold, an altar consuming a 
sacrifice with sacred fire, kindled miraculously from 
heaven, or rolling up a cloud of incense towards 
heaven, while the assembled multitude prostrated 
themselves on the ground, and offered up their de- 
votions with the consuming sacrifice, might be best 
calculated to kindle the enthusiasm and engage the 
affections of a people without intellectual culture, 
and unaccustomed to thought and reflection. A 
national feast, in which provision was made for 
social and physical gratification, might be necessary 
to secure the allegiance of a people incapable of re- 
fined, intellectual, and spiritual enjoyment. 

But in the natural and providential advancement 
of the world, the time must come when all these 
things would be outgrown. " When I was a child, 
I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought 
as a child ; but when I became a man, I put away- 
childish things." Fifteen hundred years intervened 
between Moses and Christ, and in the mean time 
the world was making constant progress. Great 
empires had arisen, the Babylonian, the Persian, 
the Grecian, the Roman, and had invented a com- 
plete system of jurisprudence. The whole civilized 
world was at the time of Christ under the govern- 



332 PHRASEOLOGY. 

ment of the Romans. They had a code of laws 
and a system of government which had been in the 
process of formation seven hundred and fifty years. 
Some ages after, it was reduced to a systematic 
form, it has been preserved, and now exerts a great 
influence upon the legislation of the world. It was 
based on natural right, and grew out of actual ex- 
perience. To have enacted civil laws in connection 
with the Christian religion would have been super- 
fluouSy as well as impracticable. Christ then, in 
promulgating a new religion, was able to separate 
it entirely from the state. He himself assumed no 
civil function, and when appealed to to decide a 
matter of property, he promptly declined the office, 
saying, " Who made me a ruler and divider over 
you ? " At another, when called on to determine 
a political question, whether it were lawful to pay 
tribute to Caesar, involving the right and the duty of 
preserving their nationality as Jews, at all hazards, 
he gave the memorable response: "Render unto 
Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God 
the things that are God's." 

This answer shows, that, in his exalted wisdom, 
he now perceived that the time had at length come 
when church and state might be safely separated. 
The objects of the Jewish nationality were now ac- 
complished, Judaism itself would soon be done away, 
and his own religion, which was purely spiritual, was 
about to be ushered in, which could live and sanctify 
mankind under all forms of civil government. 

Indeed, this severance of religion from secular af- 
fairs was absolutely necessary to Christianity as a 
universal religion. Christ himself claimed to be 



i 



CHRIST A KING. 333 

" the Light of the world." There was to be nothing 
local or national in his institutions. To the woman 
of Samaria he said : " Woman, believe me, the hour 
cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor 

yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father But the 

hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers 
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth ; for 
the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a 
spirit ; and they that worship him must worship him 
in spirit and in truth." On another occasion he 
said : " And other sheep I have, which are not of this 
fold: them also must I bring, and they shall hear my 
voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd" 
We see often in his teaching, that he bore about 
with him the consciousness that his mission was 
universal, and that his Gospel should be diffused all 
over the earth. Of the woman who poured the pre- 
cious ointment on his head, he said : " Verily I say 
unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached 
in the whole world, there shall also this which this 
woman hath done be told for a memorial of her." 
By this we perceive that he carried with him the 
anticipation, or rather the consciousness, that his 
religion was to be preached in the whole world. It 
was to have no Jerusalem, no Gerizim, no nation- 
ality ; its centre was to be everywhere, and its cir- 
cumference nowhere. There was to be in it no cen- 
tral temple, as in Judaism. Every place where God 
was worshipped was a consecrated spot, throughout 
the earth. 

The altered condition of the world, then, enabled 
Christ to omit everything of a secular, a local, and a 
civil character, and promulgate a purely spiritual 



334 PHRASEOLOGY. 

and a universal religion. But if Christ refused the 
seat of a civil magistrate, it was only to ascend a 
higher throne. He who shapes the civil institutions 
of a nation may do much for their good. Numa, 
Solon, Draco, Lycurgus, did this for the Romans, 
the Athenians, the Lacedaemonians. Their individual 
and national character was for ages influenced by 
these institutions. The mission and the destiny of 
these nations on earth was, in a manner, fixed by 
the arbitrary arrangements of one man. 

This is unquestionably a great power, through 
outward circumstances to shape and control the in- 
ward man, to make a nation literary or uncultivated, 
fond of war or peace, given to ambition or pleasure, 
preparing them to be the conquerors of the world 
or the quiet and gentle cultivators of the soil. This 
has often been done, in no small degree, by one 
man. The action of one mind has often given ob- 
ject and direction to the minds of millions through 
long centuries. 

But there is a power greater than this, that which 
addresses itself immediately to the soul itself, and 
through the soul controls and shapes all outward 
things. This is the power of moral and spiritual 
truth. To this power the soul owes an immediate 
and unconditional allegiance. I cannot resist it any 
more than I can the overpowering light of the sun. 
Before it, I am dumb and submissive. I feel that it 
is the natural sovereign of the world. It commands 
my assent. If I am a rational being, it controls my 
actions. To gainsay it is folly, to rebel against it is 
madness. No weapon formed against it can pros- 
per. A life not conformed to it must end in utter 



CHRIST A KING. 335 

discomfiture, and a single action which sets it at de- 
fiance is so much subtracted from the sum total of 
our happiness. 

To this throne of truth, Christ ascended when he 
became the teacher of the world. " Thou sayest 
well that I am a king. To this end was I born, and 
for this cause came I into the world, that I should 
bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of 
the truth heareth my voice." 

When he commenced his ministry, and multi- 
tudes began to gather about him from all parts of 
Judaea, so that the synagogues could no longer con- 
tain them, and he began to preach in the open air ; 
when he went up into a mountain, that a greater 
assembly might hear his voice ; when he opened his 
mouth and taught them, delivering that wonderful 
discourse, which is denominated " the Sermon on the 
Mount," — he began to exert, on a grand scale, his 
kingly power. The force of those words was resist- 
less. " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for 
they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, the 
peacemakers, the merciful, the pure in heart. Blessed 
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness. Whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
you, do ye even so to them." Though every word 
was death to their Jewish hopes and their worldly 
expectations, that vast multitude bowed down before 
the simple majesty of truth, and confessed that " his 
word was with power" ; they found the simple teacher 
of Nazareth, when seated in the chair of instruction, 
to be clothed with an authority infinitely higher and 
deeper and broader than he could have derived from 



336 PHRASEOLOGY. 

a kingly throne and surrounding hosts of rrmed 
men. The words he uttered did not set armies in 
motion, did not direct the physical energies of men, 
and send them forth to conquer nations, to build 
cities, to extend commerce, to establish governments, 
to cultivate the arts, but they had power to penetrate, 
convict, and regenerate the soul. That voice had 
power to convert the sinful and raise the spiritually 
dead, to pierce the sepulchre, where virtue had lain 
in the sleep of oblivion, incrusted with a load of 
worldliness and depravity, and waken man to a new 
and better life. 

To all, those words were irresistible, but to those 
who came with fair minds and right moral disposi- 
tions they carried internal proof of coming from 
God. They appealed to what is best and highest 
and holiest in our nature. As Christ himself de- 
clared, " He that will do his will shall know of the 
doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of 
myself." 

Once uttered, those words could never die. Christ 
did not write them down, nor did he take any care 
that they should be immediately recorded. But he 
truly said, " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
my word shall not pass away." The truths he 
taught are spiritual and universal. Wherever man 
is man, they apply to his mind, his heart, his life. 
They are indeed differently reported by different 
Evangelists, but still in substance they are the same 
in all. And when committed to writing, they are 
the same to the end of time, their authority is unex- 
hausted, because they are the truth, to which the 
human mind owes a natural and unalienable alle- 
giance. 



CHRIST A KING. 337 

Moses, in order to introduce the true religion into 
the world and maintain it there, was compelled to 
commit it to the guardianship of one peculiar peo- 
ple. He was obliged to provide for their national 
existence, to have bounds and limits and a common 
centre, where all religious influences should converge 
as if to a focus, and from which they might radiate 
as from a common centre. He was compelled to 
enact corresponding civil laws and institutions. He 
found it necessary to enforce religious duties by 
civil penalties. But when the fulness of time had 
come, and the world had been advancing for fifteen 
hundred years, it became possible for Christ to es- 
tablish a purely spiritual kingdom, the empire of 
truth. His sceptre was his word, his ministers were 
his Apostles, and wherever they spread his Gospel, 
they spread his power. Commanding thus the souls 
and the spiritual nature of men, Christ was placed 
at the very fountain-head of power, and mounted a 
throne higher than the kings of the earth. Then he 
sat on the throne of his glory, and before him were 
assembled all nations, and, as the King of truth, he 
distributed happiness or woe to them as they obeyed 
or disobeyed his commandments. Ever since, Christ 
has in this sense been ruling the world, he has 
been exalted to be King of kings and Lord of lords. 
Wherever his Gospel is preached, it asserts the same 
authority and exerts the same power. The highest 
and the lowest are equally subjected to his do- 
minion. 

The outward humility of Christ was no obstruc- 
tion to his spiritual power, and he exercised an im- 
measurable sway during his short ministry, though 
29 



338 PHRASEOLOGY. 

he traversed the plains of Judeea as a wayfaring man, 
and had not where to lay his head. So at the pres- 
ent hour, the humblest teacher who preaches the 
true Gospel, in the right spirit, partakes of his au- 
thority, and perpetuates his power. 

I come, in the last place, to speak of the change 
in the condition of the world, which made such a 
spiritual kingdom possible. In the days of Moses 
it would have been wholly impracticable. Men be- 
come capable of different species of government as 
they emerge from barbarism, and advance in civili- 
zation and refinement, — as their moral, intellectual, 
and spiritual faculties become developed. In a state 
of barbarism, physical force and fear are the only 
motives by which men can be governed. Immedi- 
ate physical suffering is the only penalty which can 
deter men from transgression. Even God's law 
must be clothed with terror, and must be promul- 
gated amidst consuming flames and rolling thunders. 
God's presence is symbolized by a cloud by day, and 
a pillar of fire by night ; and his especial dwelling 
is in the dark apartment and amidst the mysterious 
silence of the Holy of Holies. 

As man advances, other principles are developed 
and made predominant, and he becomes capable of 
being governed by other and higher motives. A 
broader comprehension of human relations and hu- 
man rights induces him to appreciate and reverence 
the majesty of justice, and feel the moral enormity 
of violence and wrong. A progressive refinement 
creates an abhorrence of the degradation of sensu- 
ality. A cultivated sensibility generates the feeling 
of human brotherhood, and leads men away from 






CHRIST A KING. 339 

self, and teaches them " to rejoice with them that 
do rejoice, and to weep with them that weep." A 
higher intellectual culture enables men to compre- 
hend and apply general principles, as well as par- 
ticular precepts; then the whole law, originally 
spread out into specific enactments and minute de- 
tails, may be summed in a few comprehensive com- 
mandments ; such as, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself" ; 
" Do unto others as you would that others should 
do unto you." 

Above all, as mankind advance in intellectual, 
moral, and spiritual culture, power is transferred 
from physical force to moral excellence, and a wise 
and good man rises to his rightful dominion. To a 
certain extent, his word becomes law, his opinion is 
authority, his example the ideal of humanity. In 
such an age appeared Jesus Christ, and concen- 
trated in himself all the elements of moral and spir- 
itual power, — a wisdom such as all the sages of the 
earth had never approached, which looked through 
heaven above and earth beneath, which penetrated 
alike the future and the past, which comprehended 
and laid open all the relations of man to God, to 
himself, and his fellow-man. 

With prophetic eye he saw the seats of blessed- 
ness and the regions of despair. In himself he ex- 
hibited the moral miracle of a sinless life. One 
appeared in human form, whose word was infallible, 
and his every act without stain. It was without 
presumption that he ascended the throne of uni- 
versal dominion, that he assumed to be the law- 
giver of the nations, and the oracle of all time. 



340 



PHRASEOLOGY. 



His claim was sealed by miraculous attestation, 
and men learned to look on him as the shrine of 
indwelling Divinity ; and the Apostle John spoke 
the reverence of his heart when he called him the 
incarnate Word of God. The world acquiesced in 
his authority when he rose from the dead, and, be- 
fore he ascended to heaven, commissioned his Apos- 
tles to go and teach all nations, enjoining upon them 
whatsoever he had commanded them. " And lo," 
said he, " I am with you alway, even unto the end 
of the world." 

How well Jesus understood the nature of his 
kingly power, appears from his language on several 
occasions. At one time he said to his disciples, 
" Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed 
me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall 
sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 
Consider how wonderfully this promise was ful- 
filled. How marvellously were these disciples ele- 
vated by their connection with Jesus ! Had they 
never seen him, they w^ould have passed their lives 
in the obscure towns of Galilee, known to few, 
having little power over any, and exerting very 
little influence in the world, and their names, when 
a few years had passed, would have been lost from 
the history of the world. 

Bat in consequence of their few years of disciple- 
ship to Jesus, and those powers with which they 
were intrusted from on high, they went out into the 
world men of might. They produced at once a 
great sensation. Peter's first discourse converts three 
thousand, induces them to forsake Judaism, the cher- 






CHRIST A KING. 341 

ished religion of their fathers, and commence a new 
and more spiritual life. This is perhaps the highest 
influence that one human being can exert upon 
another, — to induce him to change his character and 
his habits. Royal power cannot accomplish this. 
An earthly monarch exerts great sway in the earth, 
but it is merely superficial. He controls men's ex- 
ternal actions. He does not alter their convictions, 
he does not induce them to act from new motives. 
He soon passes away. The peculiar institutions he 
has founded fall to decay, for another king reigns in 
his place, and claims the right of moulding the 
world according to his ideas. 

Not so with the Apostles. They exercised the 
power through the Gospel of spiritual regeneration. 
They formed churches, which were collections of 
men and women whose object of association was 
the attainment of a divine and holy life. The words 
of these Apostles were committed to writing, and 
they have been the law of the world ever since. 
Through the records of the New Testament, the 
Apostles sit on Christ's throne, judging the twelve 
tribes of Israel. 

And no otherwise is it now. The Christian min- 
istry is the greatest power on earth. I do not mean 
the Church as an outward institution. I do not 
mean that vast hierarchy, which came into existence 
in the Middle Ages, and built itself a worldly throne 
higher than the kings of the earth. 1 mean the 
power of the pulpit and Christian ordinances in 
Protestant countries. 

A majority of the population attend church on 
the Sabbath, many from childhood to old age. There 
29* 



342 PHRASEOLOGY. 

they are instructed under the most favorable aus- 
pices. The rest of the Sabbath frees their hands 
from toil, and their minds in a great measure from 
care. They come to listen to the Gospel, at the 
same time that they worship God ; and the Gospel 
teaches them to know the God whom they worship. 

Such perpetual inculcation, in the course of 
years, makes them acquainted with the whole round 
of their duty; it forms their opinions, even on sub- 
jects not immediately connected with religion ; it 
shapes their sentiments ; it settles their principles of 
action. In short, what is done on the Sabbath in 
Christian churches makes Christendom what it is. 
All those who faithfully preach the Gospel in Chris- 
tian lands may be said to sit with Christ on his 
throne, judging the twelve tribes of Israel ; they par- 
take of Christ's power, and spread it abroad. 

All this is direct and immediate. There is another 
power of Christ, which is indirect and incidental. 
It is exerted through literature. There is in every 
civilized community a certain class of intellectual 
and literary men, whose employment it is to operate 
immediately upon the public mind through their 
writings. The power of this class of men increases 
as literature and intelligence become more diffused. 
There is scarcely a limit to be set to their influence. 

In a Christian country, the minds of these men, 
whether they are sensible of it or not, become 
imbued with Christian principles and sentiments, 
though they may not be religious men. In fact, 
the very language in which they write has become 
pervaded, we may say saturated, with Christianity. 
That language was born and baptized into Chris- 



CHRIST A KING. 343 

tianity ; its very words have derived their meaning 
from the precepts and the spirit of Christ. He who 
uses them, though without any theological intention, 
preaches a species of Gospel, which commands the 
conscience and controls the actions of mankind. 

Thus it is that Christ is King of the world, through 
the truth he uttered, by the precepts he gave, by the 
life he led, by the sufferings he endured, by the cre- 
dentials he brought. 



DISCOURSE XXII 



JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 



AND DECLARED TO BE THE SON OF GOD WITH POWER, AC- 
CORDING TO THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS, BY THE RESUR- 
RECTION from the dead. — Romans i. 4. 



In the phraseology of the New Testament there 
is nothing more important, or which has had a 
greater influence upon the opinions of Christendom, 
than the epithet " Son of God," when applied to 
Jesus of Nazareth. It is the purpose of this Dis- 
course to consider its import. In doing so I shall 
first investigate the matter historically; I shall first 
examine what was the meaning of this epithet be- 
fore and at the advent of Christ. Secondly, What 
was it during the ministry of Christ and his Apos- 
tles ? And thirdly, What has it been in after ages ? 

The introduction which we have in the New 
Testament to the state of things which existed in 
Judaea at the appearance of Jesus Christ, is exceed- 
ingly abrupt. Nearly four hundred years elapsed 
unrecorded between the close of the book of Mala- 
chi and the opening of the Gospel of Matthew. 
What took place in that long period is recorded 



JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 345 

only by profane historians, and in them we have 
very little relating to the religious opinions or ex- 
pectations of the Jews. 

We do know that a strong expectation of a Mes- 
siah had been formed, and about the period of the 
birth of Jesu§ had become intense. A peculiar phra- 
seology in relation to the expected one had been adopt- 
ed. Epithets derived from various passages in the Old 
Testament had been applied to him. With them 
we meet almost as soon as we open the Evangelical 
narrative. He was called before his advent " the 
Son of David," "the King of Israel," " the Messiah," 
" the Christ" or the Anointed, "the Son of Man," and 
"the Son of God." All these phrases are synony- 
mous and are Judaic, derived from the condition 
and relations of the Jewish people as under a the- 
ocracy, the immediate government of God, through 
kings and priests, who were consecrated to office by 
being anointed, according to divine direction, with 
oil. 

The Jews were led to expect their Messiah mainly 
in the capacity of a king. Among the Jews, and 
all Oriental nations, kings were considered as sus- 
taining a peculiar .relation to God. There were 
many reasons for this. They were exalted by God's 
providence to a station of great power and influence. 
They were the instruments of God of great good or 
evil to mankind. In the possession of great power, 
for good or for evil, they resembled God. Hence 
they are called not only " sons of God," but " gods," 
as in the eighty-second Psalm. " God standeth in 
the congregation of the mighty ; he judgeth among 
the gods " ; that is, kings or magistrates. " How long 



346 PHRASEOLOGY. 

will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the 
wicked ? I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you 
children," literally sons, " of the Most High ; but ye 
shall die like men, and perish as one of the people." 

In the eighty-ninth Psalm, David, in his capacity 
of the king of Israel, is thus spoken of in his rela- 
tion to God : " I have found David my servant ; 
with my holy oil have I anointed him; with whom 
my hand shall be established ; mine arm also shall 

strengthen him He shall cry unto me, Thou art 

my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. 
Also I will make him my first-born, higher than the 
kings of the earth." 

Here it is readily perceived that all kings are 
considered, by their office, to be " sons of God," and 
David has a pre-eminence over them in God's re- 
gard, as the first-born son has in those countries 
where the rights of primogeniture are maintained. 

After this explanation, it is easy to see the bear- 
ing of the second Psalm, as having been composed 
primarily concerning David in relation to surround- 
ing kings. " Why do the heathen rage, and the 
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the 
earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel to- 
gether, against the Lord, and against his anointed, 
saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast 

away their cords from us Yet have I set my 

king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the 
decree : the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my 
Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and 
I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and 
the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." 

Such is the phraseology of the Old Testament in 



JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 347 

relation to kings, and the kings of Israel especially. 
In after ages, this Psalm was interpreted to relate 
to the expected Messiah, and hence he was called, 
previous to his advent, not only " King of Israel," but 
" Son of God," in virtue of being king of Israel. 
In this relation, it had no reference to the metaphys- 
ical rank or nature of the person to whom it was ap- 
plied, but it only related to the kingly office. The 
same species of phraseology is used by the prophet 
Nathan to David, concerning Solomon. David de- 
sired to build a temple to God, but was forbidden 
by the prophet Nathan, with a promise that his son 
should accomplish what he was not allowed to un- 
dertake. " And when thy days be fulfilled, and 
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy 
seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bow- 
els, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall 
build an house for my name, and I will stablish 
his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he 
shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chas- 
ten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes 
of the children of men ; but my mercy shall not 
depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, 
whom I put away before me." Thus we perceive, 
that the title M Son of God " is applied both to 
David and Solomon, in virtue of their being kings 
of Israel. 

With these facts, we come down to the actual 
history of the New Testament. Immediately after 
the inauguration of Jesus as the Messiah by John, 
in the Jordan, by his baptism and the descent of the 
Holy Ghost, Jesus commenced his ministry by call- 
ing his disciples. The call of Philip is thus recorded : 



348 



PHRASEOLOGY. 



" The day following, Jesus would go forth into 
Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, 
Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city 
of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathaniel, 
and saith unto him, We have found him of whom 
Moses in the Law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus 
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathaniel said 
unto him, Can there any good thing come out of 
Nazareth ? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. 
Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, and saith of 
him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no 
guile! Nathaniel saith unto him, Whence knowest 
thou me ? Jesus answered and said unto him, 
Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under 
the fig-tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and 
said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou 
art the King- of Israel. Jesus answered and said 
unto him, Because I said, I saw thee under the fig- 
tree, believest thou ? Thou shalt see greater things 
than these. And he saith unto him, Hereafter ye 
shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God as- 
cending and descending upon the Son of Man." 

It is easy to perceive from this extract, that the 
Jews of that age expected a Messiah; that Philip, 
after he had been called by Jesus, considered him to 
be that personage, still supposing him to be the son 
of Joseph; and that two of the epithets applied to 
him were " Son of God " and " King of Israel," and 
that in the mind of Nathaniel the epithet " Son of 
God " had no relation to Christ's metaphysical na- 
ture. 

During the ministry of Christ and his Apostles, 
the same views seem to have been entertained. 






JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 349 

After Christ had exercised his ministry for a consid- 
erable time, and had exhibited to his disciples and 
to the world his credentials, he one day asked them 
whom they took him to be. Peter answered, " Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the living God." That 
these phrases are synonymous, and both were epi- 
thets of the Messiah and nothing more, is evident 
from the manner in which the same declaration is 
recorded by the other two Evangelists, Mark and 
Luke, who have likewise introduced it. They have 
both omitted the phrase " Son of God " altogether. 
Mark reports that he simply said, " Thou art the 
Christ," and Luke, " Thou art the Christ of God." 
Now, if these phrases had not been synonymous, 
and especially if the epithet " Son of God " had 
added anything, or contained a meaning not ex- 
pressed in the other epithet, "the Christ," or " the 
Christ of God," Mark and Luke would certainly 
not have omitted it. The Gospels were used at 
first by different churches, and it was long before 
they were collected into a volume. If there were 
any difference in the meaning of these phrases, 
there would have been a difference of doctrine in 
the different churches. One would have been 
taught that Jesus was simply the Messiah, and 
the other, that he was something more. 

The same conclusion is to be drawn from the 
account which Luke gives of the trial of Jesus 
before the Sanhedrim. " And as soon as it was 
day, the elders of the people and the chief priests 
and the scribes came together, and led him into 
their council, saying, Art thou the Christ ? tell us. 
And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not be- 
30 



350 



PHRASEOLOGY. 



lieve ; and if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, 
nor let me go. Hereafter shall the S071 of Man sit on 
the right hand of the power of God." The phrase 
" Son of Man " was likewise an epithet of the Mes- 
siah, derived from the seventh chapter of Daniel, 
in which it is said : " I saw in the night visions, 
and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the 
clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, 
and they brought him near before him ; and there 
was given him dominion, and glory, and a king- 
dom," &c. To this passage, which was interpreted 
by the Jews of their expected Messiah, Christ in- 
tended to allude, and to apply it to himself. He 
was understood to do so by the council, as will 
appear by what follows. " Then said they all, Art 
thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, 
Ye say truth, for I am." 

On one occasion he was accused of applying 
this epithet to himself on other grounds, grounds 
touching his metaphysical nature. He repudiated 
the idea, and placed the use of the term on the 
basis of his official character, and not of his essen- 
tial nature. " The Jews answered him, saying, For a 
good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and 
because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I 
said, Ye are gods ? If he called them gods unto 

whom the word of God came, say ye of him 

whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the ivorld, 
Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of 
God ? If I do not the works of my Father, believe 
me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, 
believe the works ; that ye may know and believe 



JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 351 

that the Father is in me and I in him." The 
ground upon which he here puts the application of 
the epithet " Son of God " to himself, is not his 
nature, but his mission, his having been "sanctified 
and sent into the world," of which mission his mira- 
cles were the appropriate and satisfactory proof; 
and the point of belief in him as the Son of God 
is not the relation of having been derived from the 
divine essence in a peculiar manner, but of God's 
dwelling in him and acting through him. 

Apposite to our subject is Christ's last prayer 
with his disciples. In it he applies the title " Son 
of God " to himself, and it is very easy to perceive 
in what sense. It is that of his Messianic dignity, 
his universal commission and authority. That com- 
mission was spiritual, and it consisted in giving 
eternal life or happiness to all mankind. The in- 
strument of that power and the means of that 
blessing were the knowledge of the true God, and 
himself as the revealer of God's will. " Father, the 
hour is come : glorify thy Son, that thy Son may 
also glorify thee." What the glory was to which 
he here alludes, may be learned from another pas- 
sage. It is the extension of his spiritual kingdom 
to all mankind, Gentiles as well as Jews, as is 
seen in the following passage. 

On one occasion certain Greeks desired to be 
introduced to Jesus. "When informed of it he said, 
" The hour is come when the Son of Man should be 
glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a 
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abid- 
eth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
fruit." As long as Christ lived, the universality of 



352 



PHRASEOLOGY. 



his mission could not be understood. He would 
be received only by his countrymen, and by them 
as merely a Jewish Messiah, come for the purpose 
of establishing a universal Jewish monarchy. His 
death dissipated that hope, and his resurrection 
and ascension revealed the fact that his kingdom 
was not of this world, — that it was spiritual and 
universal, belonging alike to Jew and Gentile. 

Hence the significance of the next expression of 
his prayer : " As thou hast given him power over 
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many 
as thou hast given him." As my kingdom is uni- 
versal, so let my nominal subjects be my subjects 
indeed. " As thou hast given me the world for my 
kingdom, so let my spiritual kingdom be coexten- 
sive with the world." This petition carries us back 
to the second Psalm, universally interpreted by the 
Jews of the Messiah : " Ask of me, and I shall give 
thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for thy possession." 

" And this is life eternal, that they might know 
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom 
thou hast sent." And what else is Christianity it- 
self, as it has been promulgated among the nations, 
but the knowledge of the true God, taught in the 
name and by the authority of Jesus Christ, as his 
authenticated messenger? 

" I have glorified thee on the earth ; I have finished 
the work which thou gavest me to do." "What that 
work was, he proceeds to define in the next verse 
but one : " I have manifested thy name unto the 
men which thou gavest me out of the world." I 
have made thee known to my disciples, that they 



JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 353 

may impart the same knowledge to others. " For I 
have given unto them the words which thou gavest 
me; and they have received them, and have known 
surely that I came out from thee, and they have 
believed that thou didst send me." 

" And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine 
own self, with the glory which I had with thee before 
the world was." This is often interpreted to mean : 
" Restore me to the glory which I had in thy pres- 
ence in a pre-existent state." But this sense does not 
suit the connection, and, besides, would be a selfish, 
ambitious prayer, entirely foreign to the character of 
Christ. Moreover, he afterwards says: "And the 
glory which thou gavest me, i" have given them" 
This could not be a glory which he had had in the 
presence of God in a pre-existent state. The glory, 
therefore, for which he prays, it seems more ration- 
al to suppose, was the glory of success in his mission, 
which was the salvation of the world. The mission 
and kingdom of Christ had been a prominent purpose 
of God from the beginning, from the ages of eternity, 
according to the Jewish conceptions. Paul speaks of 
it in terms like these : " Having made known unto us 
the mystery of his will, according to his good pleas- 
ure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the 
dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather 

together in one all things in Christ Wherefore 

remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the 
flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which 
is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by 
hands ; that at that time ye were without Christ, 
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and 
strangers from the covenants of promise, having no 
30* 



354 • PHRASEOLOGY. 

hope, and without God in the world ; but now, in 
Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are 
made nigh by the blood of Christ." In another 
place : " How that by revelation he made known 
unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, 

which in other ages was not made known unto 

the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the holy 
apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles 
should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and 
partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel, 
according to the eternal purpose which he pur- 
posed in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

This is the glory, as it would seem according to 
the connection, which Christ had with God before 
the foundation of the world ; this purpose that he 
should be the instrument of promulgating a universal 
religion, which should embrace both Jews and Gen- 
tiles, and make them one body, and the members of 
one Church. This was the power which God had 
given him over all flesh. This glory he communi- 
cated to his disciples by teaching them his doctrines, 
and by associating them with himself as the found- 
ers of this universal religion, — by giving them the 
words which God had given him. 

Such, as it would seem, is the force of the epithet 
" Son of God," when appropriated by Christ to him- 
self. It refers not at all to his metaphysical nature, 
but to his office as the Messiah. It is accommo- 
dated to the Jewish ideas of their theocracy, in 
which the Messiah was to reign as God's vicegerent. 

To this view of things corresponds precisely the 
introduction of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, from 
which the text is taken. " Paul, a servant of Jesus 



JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 355 

Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the 
Gospel of God, which he had promised afore by 
his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning 
his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made 
of the seed of David according to the flesh, and 
declared to be the Son of God with power, accord- 
ing to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection 
from the dead." 

His resurrection demonstrated his office as the 
Messiah, for his mission was finally staked on the 
occurrence of that fact. It did not demonstrate his 
metaphysical nature to be this or that. If it had 
any bearing upon that matter, it showed him to be 
human ; for the capacity of dying is one of the 
marks of mortal man, and his resurrection is ap- 
pealed to as the evidence of a universal resurrec- 
tion ; and this same Apostle affirms : " As by man 
came death, so by man came the resurrection of 
the dead." 

In an address made at Antioch in Pisidia, Paul 
develops his conception of the manner in which the 
resurrection of Christ was a demonstration of his 
sonship. " But God raised him from the dead ; and 
he was seen many days of them which came up 
with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his 
witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto 
you glad tidings, how that the promise which was 
made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same 
unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Je- 
sus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, 
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." 

The begetting and the sonship here spoken of can 
have no reference to Christ's essential nature, for 



356 PHRASEOLOGY. 

Christ did not begin to exist when he rose from the 
dead. But his resurrection did, in a measure, inau- 
gurate him as the Messiah ; it demonstrated him to 
be that great personage which the Jews expected. 
From that moment his kingdom began to be estab- 
lished, a kingdom not confined to the Jews, but ex- 
tending to every land, embracing every tribe and 
nation upon earth. 

Such was the meaning of the epithet " Son of 
God," when applied to Jesus of Nazareth, in the 
days of Christ and his Apostles. It was a synonyme 
for Messiah, and nothing more. It had no reference 
whatever to Christ's metaphysical nature. It is true, 
that John in his Gospel added another idea, that of 
nearness, confidence, and endearment. He calls Christ 
the " only-begotten Son of God." At first sight this 
would seem to indicate a peculiar and especial deri- 
vation from God. But the ground of such a conclu- 
sion vanishes, when we examine the contempora- 
neous use of the word rendered only-begotten. Its 
primary meaning was the literal one, that of an only 
son of a human father. But, like many, nay, most 
words, it acquired a secondary and figurative signi- 
fication. An only son usually becomes an object 
of intense and peculiar affection. An only son was 
naturally, and almost necessarily, a well-beloved son. 
Hence " only-begotten " became an epithet of en- 
dearment. In the time of Christ, for one person to 
call another " his son " was a title of endearment, 
but to call him " his only son " was a title of intense 
affection. Thus Paul calls Timothy, not only his 
son, but his genuine or true son. The same lan- 
guage he likewise uses of Titus. This, of course, 



JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 357 

indicates no natural relation between the parties, 
but only of affection, obligation, confidence. 

That it was a phrase of endearment appears from 
the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. There the writer 
says : u By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered 
up Isaac, and he that had received the promises 
offered up his only-begotten son. 11 Isaac was not 
his only-begotten son. He had another son, Ish- 
mael, who was just as much his son as Isaac. That 
it was considered as a term of endearment by the 
Jews who spoke the Greek language appears from 
the fact, that, in the translation of the Old Testament 
into Greek made by the Jews themselves, the same 
word rendered by the author of the Hebrews only- 
begotten is translated iv ell-beloved. 

No ideas involving sex can have any application 
to God, and all language derived from sexual rela- 
tions can be only metaphorical. God is a spirit, 
and when he is called Father, it is only in an ana- 
logical sense. The only derivation from God is by 
creation, and all literal application of human rela- 
tions to him leads the human mind into the most 
serious misapprehension. 

Had the administration of Christianity remained 
in the hands of Jews or converts from Judaism, their 
Hebrew education, their strict ideas of the unity and 
spirituality of God, and their knowledge of the force 
of Hebrew phraseology, would have prevented them 
from receiving from the epithet " Son of God " any 
other than its Jewish significance, as a designation 
of the Messiah. 

But Christianity did not long remain under the 
administration of Jews. It soon fell into the hands 



358 PHRASEOLOGY. 

of converted Pagans. Jerusalem and the Jewish 
nation were destroyed about the close of the apos- 
tolic age. The Jewish branch of the Church lost its 
standing and influence, and its pure theology lost 
ground in a corresponding degree. 

The fathers of the Church in the succeeding ages 
were Greeks and Romans by extraction and educa- 
tion. Few of them could even read the Hebrew 
language, and of course were strangers to Hebrew 
ideas, idioms, and phraseology. 

They had no strict ideas of the unity of God, their 
minds were clouded by Oriental speculations of 
Divine emanations, which preceded the creation of 
the world, and with the Platonic notion of a division 
of God into various attributes and manifestations ; 
and, making a complete shipwreck of the Divine 
unity, they put heathen meanings upon Jewish 
phraseology, and interpreted the epithet " Son of 
God " of Christ's metaphysical nature. 

In the Old Testament Wisdom is spoken of as a 
person, and as having existed With God before the 
creation of the world. In the book of Proverbs, 
Wisdom is introduced as speaking : " The Lord 
possessed me in the beginning of his way, before 
his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, 
from the beginning or ever the earth was. When 
there were no depths, I was brought forth ; when 
there were no fountains abounding with water, 
then was I by him, as one brought up with him ; 
and I w r as daily his delight, rejoicing always before 
him." 

No personification could be stronger than this, 
and yet no real person was intended. So in the 






JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 359 

New Testament that divine wisdom and power 
which were manifested in Jesus were denominated 
the Word, or the Word of God. In the first chapter 
of John's Gospel, he says: "In the beginning was 
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
Word was God " ; not a person with God, but an 
attribute personified, which was nothing else than 
God himself. But putting these four expressions 
together, " wisdom," " brought forth," " Word," and 
" Son," the early Christian Fathers, who were all 
converts from heathenism, and who knew no bet- 
ter than to suppose that one Deity might be derived 
from another, fabricated the strange doctrine, that 
the sonship of Christ, instead of being the title of 
an office, was the name of the divine nature of 
Christ, which was derived from God before the cre- 
ation of the world. 

At the time of Justin Martyr, one hundred and 
forty years after Christ, the doctrine concerning 
Christ's sonship had assumed this shape. " God," 
says he, "in the beginning, before anything was 
created, begat a Rational Power from himself 
which is called by the Holy Ghost, Glory of the 
Lord, and sometimes Son, Wisdom, Angel, Lord, 
Logos ; sometimes also he calls him Leader. In 
the form of a man he appeared unto Joshua, the 
son of Nun. All the above names he bears, be- 
cause he ministers to the will of the Father, and 
was begotten by the will of the Father." 

But the word " Logos " not only means speech, 
but reason ; and thus, though the Word became 
the Son of God, when God created the universe 
by his word, still as his reason he was always in 



360 PHRASEOLOGY. 

him, and of course was coeternal. Thus we see a 
title gradually transformed by the human" imagina- 
tion into a person, and that person conceived of as 
dating his being before the foundation of the world, 
and as having been derived from the very substance 
of the Deity. 



DISCOURSE XXIII 



PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 

AND THEY TRULY WERE MANY PRIESTS, BECAUSE THEY 
WERE NOT SUFFERED TO CONTINUE BY REASON OF 
DEATH : BUT THIS MAN, BECAUSE HE CONTINUETH EVER, 
HATH AN UNCHANGEABLE PRIESTHOOD. WHEREFORE HE 
IS ABLE ALSO TO SAVE THEM TO THE UTTERMOST THAT 
COME UNTO GOD BY HIM, SEELNG HE EVER LIVETH TO 
MAKE INTERCESSION FOR THEM. FOR SUCH AN HIGH- 
PRIEST BECAME US, WHO IS HOLY, HARMLESS, UNDE- 
FILED, SEPARATE FROM SINNERS, AND MADE HIGHER 
THAN THE HEAVENS ; WHO NEEDETH NOT DAILY, AS 
THOSE HIGH-PRIESTS, TO OFFER UP SACRIFICE, FIRST 
FOR HIS OWN SINS, AND THEN FOR THE PEOPLE'S: FOR 
THIS HE DID ONCE, WHEN HE OFFERED UP HIMSELF. — 

Hebrews vii. 23 - 27. 

We are accustomed to hear much in Christian 
teaching of the priesthood of Christ, and it is repre- 
sented as being one of the fundamental doctrines of 
Christianity. It is the purpose of this Discourse to 
inquire on what language of the New Testament 
this impression is founded. Is that language literal 
or figurative, primary or analogical, declaratory or 
illustrative ? Is it found in the Gospels, and is it 
the language of Christ himself? or is it found in 
31 



362 



PHRASEOLOGY. 



the Epistles, or a single Epistle ? Is it addressed 
to all Christians, or only to a single class of them ? 

Let any person who wishes to examine this sub- 
ject take up a common concordance, and he will 
find that Christ is spoken of as a priest only in one 
portion of the New Testament, and that is the 
Epistle to the Hebrews. In other parts of the New 
Testament he is called a sacrifice^ but nowhere else 
is he called a priest and a sacrifice too, by virtue of 
the fact that he sacrificed himself. The question 
arises, Why is he called a priest, or a high-priest, in 
that Epistle, and nowhere else ? 

In order satisfactorily to answer this question, we 
shall inquire, in the first place, What was priest- 
hood, and what was a high-priest, in the minds of 
those to whom this Epistle was addressed? In the 
early ages of the world, public religious services 
consisted mainly of sacrifices. Religious teaching 
made no part of them. There was, then, no Bible 
to teach from; the Law of Moses even was not 
given. There was no written revelation, and prob- 
ably no writing of any kind. The only ceremonies 
by which men expressed and cherished their devo- 
tional sentiments were by sacrifice. An animal 
was slain after some religious forms, or some of 
the fruits of the earth were set apart. A portion 
of the sacrifice was burnt, and thus considered as 
having been offered to God. On the remainder the 
assembled company feasted, and those who partook 
were counted to have been participants in the act 
of worship. The office of offering the sacrifice was 
usually performed by the master of a family, the 
patriarch of a household, or the acknowledged head 






PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 363 

of a tribe. Such was the case with Abraham and 
his posterity. When his offspring became a great 
people, and Moses was sent to organize them as a 
nation, he delegated the sacerdotal function to the 
tribe of Levi, and the high-priesthood to his brother 
Aaron and his eldest male descendants. 

The high-priest was the ecclesiastical head of the 
nation, and nothing was omitted which could secure 
to him reverence and respect. His person was held 
especially sacred, and he was not permitted to sully 
his dignity by any badge of mourning, even under 
the suffering of the severest bereavement. He was 
clad in gorgeous vestments, and on his breast he 
wore the sacred Urim and Thummim, the mysteri- 
ous oracle by which Jehovah was accustomed to 
make known his will. 

One ceremony, in which he alone was permitted 
to officiate, conferred upon him peculiar sacredness. 
He alone was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, 
the inmost recess of the sanctuary, where were de- 
posited the sacred Ark, the Book of the Law, and 
the Tables of the Covenant. This he did every 
year, on the day of expiation, when the whole peo- 
ple afflicted their souls. He took with him a part 
of the blood of the sacrifice, and sprinkled it on the 
lid of the Ark, as being the nearest representative of 
God, who was one of the parties concerned in the 
forgiveness of sinners. 

In this ceremony every Jew took the profoundest 
interest, and the day of Atonement was the most 
solemn day of the year ; for who was there of all 
the millions of the nation that was not conscious of 
sin, and felt not the need of pardon? That cere- 



364 PHRASEOLOGY. 

mony answered to one of the most universal wants 
of human nature, — the assurance that God is merci- 
ful and ready to pardon the contrite sinner. How 
could the Jew be persuaded to let go his hold on a 
religion which gave him so comfortable an assur- 
ance ? There was something, too, fascinating and 
imposing in the whole temple service, — the vast 
assemblages which were collected three times a 
year, the beauty of the temple itself, the costliness 
of its ornaments, the constancy, the uniformity, the 
antiquity of the celebration of its rites, the awe of 
the Divine presence, which was thought to be vouch- 
safed to its inner sanctuary. 

This service, at the time of the writing of this 
Epistle, was yet uninterrupted, still unabolished ; 
nor was there any outward sign that it was soon 
coming to an end. This service, the converts to 
Christianity, to whom this Epistle was addressed, 
had forsaken. They had embraced a religion of far 
less outward show. Moses, the founder of Juda- 
ism, had been brought up in the court of Egypt, 
and though in his infancy he had been exposed in 
an ark of bulrushes, he had been the companion 
of kings and princes. Jesus, born in a manger, had 
been brought up in the humble village of Nazareth, 
and, till his showing to Israel, had moved in the 
humblest sphere. Moses, for forty years, had been 
the honored head of his nation, and when he died 
God had wisely hid his sepulchre from the supersti- 
tious reverence of his countrymen. Jesus, during 
his life, had been an humble, persecuted man, and 
had died upon a cross. The Law had been given 
from heaven, as the Jew believed, by the ministry of 






PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 365 

angels. The Mosaic religion had been inaugurated 
on Sinai, amid thunder and smoke. Christianity 
had been established by the personal ministry of 
Christ, journeying like a pilgrim from village to vil- 
lage. No glory had surrounded his person, no court 
had sustained his dignity, and his only attendants, 
his disciples, were persons still humbler than himself. 
How could this vast disparity be counterbalanced, 
and the converted Jew be assured and made con- 
tented in his new faith ? 

The Jews, moreover, had a superstitious belief 
concerning the origin of their temple, which greatly 
increased its value in their estimation. By a fan- 
ciful interpretation of some passages in the Old 
Testament, they drew from it the doctrine that their 
temple was constructed after the model of heaven 
itself. This belief is dimly shadowed forth in the 
following passage : " Now of the things which we 
have spoken, this is the sum : We have such an 
high-priest, who is set on the right hand of the 
throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of 
the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the 
Lord pitched, and not man. For every high-priest 
is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices ; wherefore it 
is of necessity that this man have somewhat also 
to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be 
a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts 
according to the law; who serve unto the example 
and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was ad- 
monished of God when he was about to make the 
tabernacle, for, See, saith he, that thou make all 
things according to the pattern showed to thee in 
31* 



366 PHRASEOLOGY. 

the mount." This pattern the Jews imagined to 
be nothing less than heaven itself. 

Jesus had risen and ascended, he had gone to 
heaven, and of course had entered this august tem- 
ple to be for ever there. The way was thus pre- 
pared for a parallelism between Judaism and Chris- 
tianity, between the temple on earth and the temple 
in heaven. 

The thesis of the whole Epistle to the Hebrews 
is to show that Christianity is superior to Judaism, 
even in those points on which Judaism most valued 
itself. It is so, first, in the manner of its promulgate, 
tion. The Jews considered their law to have been 
given through the intervention of angels. To this 
opinion Stephen appeals in his speech to his coun- 
trymen : " "Who have received the law by the dispo- 
sition of angels, and have not kept it." 

Christ is superior to the angels, because he is 
called God's son, whereas the angels are only called 
God's messengers. Winds and lightnings are called 
God's messengers, which are not even persons, but 
only unintelligent, material things. He is superior 
in the permanence of his dignity and being. Jesus 
is the Messiah, and God has promised that his 
throne shall be stable and eternal, whereas the 
heavens, the very habitation of the angels, shall 
wax old as doth a garment, shall be folded to- 
gether and pass away. 

Jesus was superior to Moses, because, notwith- 
standing his admission to an intimate communica- 
tion with God, he is only called God's servant. A 
servant has little rank or authority in a household. 
Indeed, he has no authority, and his highest attribute 



PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 367 

is fidelity. Jesus, as the Messiah, is called God's 
son. A son has rank and authority in a household. 
That household is the Christian Church. 

The next point to show, in order to prove the su- 
periority of Christianity to Judaism, was that Jesus 
ivas greater than the Levitical priesthood, that he 
performed a function more august than that of the 
high-priest himself. 

The proof of this latter proposition was surround- 
ed with no inconsiderable difficulties. Jesus when 
on earth was not a priest in any possible sense 
whatever. He never performed any priestly office. 
He was not of the sacerdotal lineage. He was of 
the tribe of Judah. No man could be priest, accord- 
ing to the Mosaic institute, who was not of the tribe 
of Levi. Besides, the real priesthood were then in 
office, and daily celebrating the prescribed ritual in 
the temple at Jerusalem. How then could Jesus be 
a priest ? He proves this out of the (Tews' own in- 
terpretation of the Old Testament. It would seem, 
from Christ's conversation with the Jews, recorded 
in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew, that they 
were accustomed to interpret the one hundred and 
tenth Psalm of their expected Messiah. In that 
Psalm there occurs this passage : " Thou art a priest 
for ever after the order of MelchisedekP If he was 
a high-priest for ever, he had a perpetual priesthood. 

The materials then for the writer's argument were 
all prepared to his hand, in the previous opinions of 
the Jews, for whose especial edification the whole 
Epistle to the Hebrews was composed. Christ was 
a priest, the hundred and tenth Psalm said so. He 
had risen, and ascended, and gone into heaven. 



368 PHRASEOLOGY. 

Heaven, in the Jewish conception, was a vast tem- 
ple, the original pattern of the temple at Jerusalem. 
He had entered into a state of immortality, and if a 
priest at all, he must have a perpetual priesthood, he 
must be a priest for ever. 

To show that Jesus was of the order of Mel- 
chisedek, besides the declaration of the hundred and 
tenth Psalm, various circumstances of resemblance 
are thrown in. They lived far apart, but were in 
some respects alike. Melchisedek had no recorded 
predecessor, and no immediate successor in office. 
No mention is made in the Scripture of his father, 
or mother, or of his children. It is not said when he 
was born, or when he died, or whether he was born 
or died at all. By a figure of speech, then, he may 
be said not to have been born or to have died at all, 
and to have a species of perpetuity, and thus to have 
resembled Jesus in his real immortality. 

But what direct argument was there to show that 
the order of priesthood of Melchisedek was superior 
to that of Aaron ? Abraham, the honored patriarch 
of the Jews, paid tithes to him, thereby acknowledg- 
ing his superior dignity and sanctity. Besides, Levi, 
the father of the sacerdotal tribe, was a descendant 
of Abraham, and therefore might be said to be in 
him at the time, and thus, through Abraham, to have 
paid tithes to Melchisedek. 

The priesthood of Jesus was superior to the Levit- 
ical priesthood, because it was an eternal priesthood. 
The incumbents of the Levitical priesthood were 
mortal men. Each one lived but a short time, and 
then was succeeded by another. Jesus has passed 
into a state of immortality, and therefore has a per- 



PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 369 

petnal priesthood. The Jewish high-priest offered 
the great sacrifice of atonement once every year, and 
that sacrifice was continually repeated. Jesus of- 
fered his sacrifice but once, and it never nseded to 
be, and never was, repeated. " But Christ being 
come an high-priest of good things to come, by a 
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with 
hands, that is to say, not of this creation, neither by 
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, 
he entered in once into the holy place, having ob- 
tained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood 
of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer 
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of 
the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, 
who by his immortal spirit offered himself without 
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works 
to serve the living God ? " 

The practical conclusion drawn from all this is : 
" Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into 
the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and 
living way which he hath consecrated for us through 
the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having an high- 
priest over the house of God, let us draw near with 
a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our 
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our 
bodies washed with pure water ; let us hold fast the 
profession of our faith without wavering." 

It is scarcely necessary to say, that all this com- 
parison of Judaism with Christianity, considered as 
logical reasoning, has no validity. Nothing what- 
ever is proved by it. Considered as an allegory, or 
a series of comparisons, it is a splendid composition. 
As a rhetorical address, it is affecting and persuasive, 



370 PHRASEOLOGY. 

most admirably adapted to give the converted Jew 
a high appreciation of his new faith, and to make 
him contented as the follower of Jesus, although he 
had forsaken the more splendid ritual of Moses ; for 
he was informed that the spiritual significance of the 
work of Christ tended to loftier and more permanent 
issues, as being more effectual and universal. 

As a logical argument, the conclusiveness of the 
whole Epistle must depend on the soundness of the 
premises which are laid down as the foundation. It 
does not appear by the record of the Old Testament 
that there was any intimation of the intervention of 
angels in giving the Law. The ten commandments 
are introduced with the following preface : " And God 
spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, 
which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out 
of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other 
gods before me." The later Jews, as their theological 
ideas became more refined, shrunk from so material 
a representation of God, and maintained that the 
giving of the Law was through the medium of an- 
gels. That such an opinion prevailed, we have the 
evidence of Stephen, of Paul, and of Josephus, as 
well as the writings of the Jewish Rabbins. So 
strong was this impression in the Apostolic age, that 
the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in estab- 
lishing the superiority of Christianity to Judaism, 
thought it necessary to frame an argument to prove 
the superiority of Jesus the Messiah to the angels. 
But the very opinion which that argument was in- 
tended to meet has no legitimate historical foun- 
dation. 

The second argument to show the superiority of 



PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 371 

Christianity to Judaism, by proving the superiority 
of Jesus to Moses, is exceedingly ingenious ; but, 
logically considered, must be confessed to have but 
little force. It turns upon the distinction between 
son and servant, and between being in and over a 
household. No difference of nature is asserted or 
intended in the argument. Both were what they 
were, not by nature, but by divine appointment. 
" Wherefore, brethren, partakers of the heavenly 
calling, consider the Apostle and High-Priest of our 
profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that 
appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his 
house." " And Moses, verily, was faithful in all his 
house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things 
which were to be spoken after ; but Christ, as a son 
over his own house ; whose house are we, if we hold 
fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope 
firm unto the end." A son over a household has a 
higher dignity than a servant in a household, though 
of the same nature. But God calls Moses his ser- 
vant ; Jesus he calls his son. Moses did not found 
Judaism, he only reformed and remodelled it from 
the patriarchal religion. Jesus founded Christianity, 
and the Christian Church proceeds from him person- 
ally as its head. " For this man was counted wor- 
thy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who 
hath builded the house hath more glory than the 
house." House and household are expressed by the 
same word in Greek. This argument turns, you 
perceive, upon the double sense of a single word, 
house, a building, and house, a family, and there- 
fore is merely verbal and rhetorical. 

We now come to the examination of the third 



372 PHRASEOLOGY. 

argument, which is the main subject of this Dis- 
course ; that by which Jesus as a priest is proved to 
be superior to the Levitical priesthood. Christ, as 
we have already seen, was not a priest while here on 
earth, in the literal sense of the term. This is ad- 
mitted in so many words : " For if he were on earth, 
he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests 
that offer gifts according to the law." " For he of 
whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another 
tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. 
For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda, 
of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the 
priesthood" His priesthood began when he was 
removed from earth and entered the heavenly world. 
His priestly office was exercised only in the temple 
of heaven itself. He entered that temple only when 
he died, for he entered it with his own blood. But 
no part of his blood could by any possibility be 
transported to heaven, and really enter this spiritual 
and immaterial temple. 

The question whether the priesthood of Christ is 
real and literal, or only analogical and rhetorical, 
turns mainly upon the facts, whether there was any 
original reference to Christ in that clause of the hun- 
dred and tenth Psalm, " Thou art a priest for ever 
after the order of Melchisedek," and whether there is 
in reality any such temple in the heavenly world as 
the Jews imagined to have been the prototype of 
their temple in Jerusalem. 

It is nowhere asserted in the Bible, that the hun- 
dred and tenth Psalm related primarily to the Mes- 
siah. Christ does not assert it in the twenty-second 
chapter of Matthew. He merely reasons with the 



PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 



373 



Jews upon their own premises, and asks them, if 
they make that Psalm prophetic of the Messiah, 
how they will explain a certain part of it. 

Now there is no reason in the Psalm itself for ap- 
plying it to " the Prince of Peace," but many strong 
reasons against it. The last three verses are wholly 
inapplicable to the true Messiah. 

" The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through 
kings in the day of his wrath ; he shall judge among 
the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead 
bodies ; he shall wound the heads over many coun- 
tries ; he shall drink of the brook in the way : there- 
fore shall be lift up the head." 

There is no straining, either by figurative or spir- 
itual interpretation, by which such language as this 
can be made to apply to any part of the history of 
the person or the religion of Christ. It must pri- 
marily have referred to some other person, probably 
some warrior king of the olden time. The most 
rational interpretation is, that the whole Psalm was 
composed in honor of David, after taking the fortress 
and site of Jerusalem from the Jebusites. 

With regard to the second fact, the existence of 
a real temple in the heavens, which is assumed as 
the basis of the priesthood of Christ, it is sufficient 
to say, that it has no foundation in the Scriptures 
of the Old Testament, nor in the physical or spirit- 
ual universe, as we are made acquainted with them 
from other sources. It is simply a Jewish or Rab- 
binical fancy, which originated a long time after 
the closing of the Old Testament, probably from 
the superstitious reverence which gradually grew up 
about that edifice, which the Jew regarded as the most 
32 



374 PHRASEOLOGY. 

sacred of anything on this globe. Having been 
constructed by divine direction, he imagined that it 
could have no other original than heaven itself. 
Hence there was a peculiar significance in the lan- 
guage of Moses, when he relates that he was ordered 
" to make all things according to the pattern shown 
him in the mount." The literal acceptance of this 
idea would involve nothing less than the materiality 
of heaven, and of God himself. 

It is hardly possible, therefore, to believe that the 
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews himself in- 
tended his composition as a logical argument. It 
seems more probable, to me at least, that it was 
written as a sort of allegorical exhortation, in which, 
by an ingenious parallelism between Judaism and 
Christianity, he might more effectually • commend 
the great spiritual truths of the Gospel to his coun- 
trymen by clothing them in the costume of Judaic 
idealism. 

What are those truths ? They are these. The 
Jewish Messiah, to whom the prophets had pointed, 
and for whom all former ages and dispensations had 
prepared the way, has come in the person of Jesus 
of Nazareth. He is the most exalted personage 
next to God that we know, and he has founded a 
religion which is destined to be universal, and to last 
as long as time itself. Jesus and his religion meet 
the religious wants of man better than Judaism itself, 
even in those points where Judaism was strongest 
and most satisfactory. The ancient sacrifices were 
intended to assure men of God's readiness to par- 
don the sins of the penitent. Christ has done more. 
By his death, he sealed the new covenant with his 






PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 375 

blood, which covenant contains the promise of for- 
giveness to the penitent. Not only so, not only has 
he assured us of forgiveness, but of immortality. He 
has tasted death for every man ; he has overcome 
death, and triumphantly entered heaven itself, as 
our forerunner, and thus become the certain pledge 
to us of a better life. 

These are the simple and glorious truths which 
constitute the very essence and substance of Chris- 
tianity under any and every mode of exhibition. 
They were made to assume this outward dress, to 
commend them to the affections and acceptance of 
the Jews. 

The literal priesthood of Christ, then, is not to be 
placed among- the doctrines of Christianity, but is to 
be put in the category of the phraseology of the New 
Testament It is not found in the Gospels, the fun- 
damental records, but only in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, written to a peculiar people for a special 
purpose. It was instructive, persuasive, and edify- 
ing to those who had been educated under the ritual 
of Judaism, and to us is it so as far as we have been 
made to sympathize with the Jews by a constant 
reading of the Old Testament from our earliest 
years. 

Priesthood, in the literal sense, is not a Christian 
idea ; neither is sacrifice. They belonged to Juda- 
ism, which Christianity was intended to supersede. 
Christ performed no such office. The business of 
his mission was teaching, and his commission to 
his disciples was, " Go, teach all nations." 

But sacrifice and priesthood did correspond to a 
want in human nature, which is perennial and uni- 



376 PHRASEOLOGY. 

versal, the sense of guilt and need of pardon. The 
death of Christ, connected with his resurrection and 
ascension, since he came as the ambassador of 
God's mercy, answered the same purpose in the 
New Dispensation. The death of Christ then, by 
figure of speech, might be called a perpetual sacri- 
fice.^ 

Another office of priesthood is intercession, and 
Christ, being raised to immortality, is our per- 
petual Intercessor. The crucifixion, the resurrec- 
tion, and the ascension of Christ are the main facts 
in the Christian history. They are the keystones of 
Christian faith. Take them out of the arch, and 
the whole structure tumbles to ruins. 

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives 
them their due pre-eminence. And although, in 
writing to the ancient people of God, he gives them 
a Jewish costume, we see that they were to his 
mind, as they are to ours, the anchor of hope, 
which entereth within the veil, and brings us near 
to the glorious realities of the eternal world. 



DISCOURSE XXIV. 



SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 

AND HE TOOK THE CUP, AND GAVE THANKS, AND GAVE IT 
TO THEM, SAYING, DRINK YE ALL OF IT : FOR THIS IS MY 
BLOOD OF THE NEW COVENANT, WHICH IS SHED FOR 

many for the remission of sins. — Matthew xxvi. 27, 28. 

The subject of this Discourse is the sacrificial 
language of the New Testament, when applied to 
the death of Christ. It is, as is acknowledged on all 
hands, of very frequent occurrence. The question 
concerning it is, Is it literal or is it figurative ? Do 
the sacred writers mean to assert, that Christ's death 
was literally a propitiatory sacrifice, offered to God 
to atone for the sins of mankind, or do they mean to 
say that it is analogous to a sacrifice, or may be com- 
pared to the various sacrifices which constituted 
so large a part of the ceremonial of the Mosaic re- 
ligion ? 

In my judgment, the latter representation is the 
true one, — that the death of Christ was analogous 
to a sacrifice ; and therefore I place the sacrificial 
language of the writers of the New Testament in 
the category of phraseology. If it were otherwise, I 
32* 



378 PHRASEOLOGY. 

should have placed the atonement among the doc- 
trines of Christianity. 

The common and popular doctrine upon this sub- 
ject has been, that Christ's death was a real propiti- 
atory sacrifice. Not only so, it was the only true 
and efficacious sacrifice that has ever been offered. 
All other sacrifices, ordained under the old dispen- 
sation, were only types and foreshadowings of this. 
They had no efficacy in themselves, but only as 
they pointed the faith of the offerer forward to the 
only real atonement, in the blood of Christ. 

In corroboration of this apprehension, various 
passages of the New Testament are appealed to, 
but especially the Epistle to the Hebrews. " Be- 
hold the Lamb of God," says John the Baptist, 
" that taketh away the sin of the world." Paul says : 
" Christ hath loved us and hath given himself for us, 
an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smell- 
ing savor." In another place : " Being justified 
freely by his grace, through the redemption there is 
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a pro- 
pitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his 
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, 
through the forbearance of God." Peter says : 
" Who his own self bare our sins in his own body 
on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should 
live unto righteousness ; by whose stripes ye were 
healed." In another place : " For Christ also hath 
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that 
he might bring us unto God." John declares : " If 
any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is a propitiation 
for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins 
of the whole world." 



I 



SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 379 

In the institution of the supper, Christ himself 
said of the vine, " Drink ye all of it : for this is my 
blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many 
for the remission of sins" 

On the strength of these and similar passages, it 
is affirmed that the death of Christ was a real sacri- 
fice to God, the means of procuring God's forgive- 
ness, the indispensable condition of God's pardon of 
any sin of any individual of the human race. No 
matter how penitent any individual might have 
been, however thoroughly he might have reformed, 
or how holy he might have become, God could not 
have forgiven him, and he must have been con- 
signed to everlasting burnings. 

Such was the strictness of God's law; and so 
necessary was it to maintain its honor, that its au- 
thority would have been annulled, its force would 
have been broken, had not the punishment it 
threatens, and the penalty it exacts, been suffered 
by Christ. 

Not only so, it has been maintained that the 
guilt of the sinner is taken from him and trans- 
ferred to Christ, and thus is expiated and blotted 
out, and the righteousness of Christ is transferred 
to the sinner, so that he becomes righteous as Christ 
was, and as deserving of everlasting happiness. 

To these views of the death of Christ the most 
weighty and insurmountable objections may be 
urged. 

And, first, the death of Christ was not a literal 
sacrifice ; it wanted the conditions and circum- 
stances of a sacrifice. A sin-offering, and it is in 
this sense that Christ's death is said to be a sacri- 



380 PHRASEOLOGY. 

fice, luas an offering brought by a penitent person in 
token of his contrition. If a victim, it was slain by 
a priest, a consecrated official person, set apart for 
this especial function. Some part of it at least was 
placed upon an altar and burnt. Who brought 
about the death of Christ? Were they penitent 
persons ? The Apostles, immediately after the res- 
urrection of Jesus, accuse the Jews of his death as 
a murder. " Ye men of Israel, hear these words : 
Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among 
you by miracles and wonders and signs, which 
God did, by him, in the midst of you, as ye your- 
selves also know, him being delivered by the deter- 
minate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have 
taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." 
If there were any offerers of Christ as a sin-offering, 
it must have been these Jews. And yet, on their 
part, so far from being an offering of penitence was 
it, that the Apostles characterize it as a guilty mur- 
der. No thought of a penitential offering ever en- 
tered into their minds. 

If there were any priests in this sacrifice, they 
must have been the soldiers who crucified him. 
But they were Romans, and we have no evidence 
that they ever knew or recognized the true God. 
As far as they were concerned, Christ was on a 
level with the two thieves who were crucified at 
his side. To them the act was a matter of official 
duty, and we have no reason to suppose that any 
thought of offering any species of a sacrifice ever 
entered their minds. 

The victim, according to the Mosaic ritual, was 
laid, in part, upon an altar. There was no altar in 



SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 



381 



this case, but Christ expired upon a cross. The 
manner of his death was determined by the circum- 
stance that Judaea was then in the possession of the 
Romans, whose manner of execution for the lowest 
criminals was by crucifixion. The common mode of 
putting criminals to death in Judaea, according to 
the Mosaic institute, was stoning. 

We next inquire, Did Christ sacrifice himself in a 
literal sense ? If he did, then he died for the sake 
of dying ; he voluntarily put an end to his life, when 
he might have avoided it. Or, to speak in plain but 
repulsive language, he destroyed himself. And can 
we suppose a holy God to have been pleased with 
such an act, in itself considered ? In this considera- 
tion, we must abstract this act from everything else, 
and isolate it from every other part of his mission 
and ministry. 

Human sacrifices were among the worst abomi- 
nations of the heathen religions, and one of the 
severest reproaches which were ever cast upon the 
heathen deities was the supposition that they could 
be pleased with such offerings. 

But Christ did not die for the sake of dying, nor 
did he take his own life. He died to sustain his 
claim to be the promised Messiah. He was tried by 
the public authorities of his country as an impostor. 
He was solemnly interrogated by the chief priest : 
" I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us 
whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus 
saith unto him, Thou hast said " ; or, as another 
Evangelist reports, " I am." The consequence of that 
avowal was an immediate condemnation to death. 

If we may credit the plain historic statement of 



382 PHRASEOLOGY. 

facts, the purpose of his death was not to appease 
God's wrath, or to be a sacrifice for sin, but to bear 
testimony to a truth, which was vital to the world's 
salvation, that he was the true Messiah, and his 
Gospel an authentic revelation from God. He sac- 
rificed his life to the success of his mission. 

We say, then, from these considerations, that the 
death of Christ was not a literal sacrifice. It had 
not a single circumstance of a literal sacrifice, — no 
penitent offerer, no priest, no altar ; nor did Christ 
offer himself in any other literal sense than by dying 
as a martyr to the truth. 

There is another consideration, which ought to 
go far in determining our judgment in this matter. 
When we consider the sacrifices of the old dispen- 
sation, we find, on a more careful examination, that 
they were not all of one kind. There were many 
species, all differing from each other in their nature, 
their purpose, and their import. Sacrifices, among 
all nations, made a part of divine worship, from the 
earliest ages. Before the invention of books, and 
the institution of public religious instruction, sacri- 
fices were almost the only purpose of a religious 
nature for which men came together. 

One species of sacrifice was the eucharistical, as 
it is called, whose simple and exclusive use was the 
expression of gratitude to God, as the Giver of all 
good. It had nothing to do with sin, or penitence, 
or God's forgiveness. Such were the first sacrifices 
of which we read in the Bible, the offerings brought 
by Cain and Abel of the first-fruits of the earth 
and the offspring of the flocks. Such were the 
offerings directed by Moses to be made at the in- 



SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 



383 



coming of the harvest. The institution of this sac- 
rifice is mentioned in the twenty-third chapter of 
Leviticus. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, When ye be come into the land which I give 
you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall 
bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest 
unto the priest ; and he shall wave the sheaf before 
the Lord, to be accepted for you. And ye shall 
offer that day, when ye wave the sheaf, an he-lamb 
without blemish of the first year, for a burnt-offer- 
ing unto the Lord." 

The whole purpose of this was the expression of 
religious gratitude to God as the Giver of the har- 
vest, and thus to make the common blessings of 
life to be the means of spiritual improvement. No 
ideas of penitence or forgiveness entered into this 
sacrifice. The only and exclusive sentiment which 
it was intended to express was gratitude. Peni- 
tence and forgiveness were signified by another and 
distinct sacrifice, called the sin-offering. That it 
was distinct is shown by the fact that a sin-offer- 
ing was made during this very festival, and called a 
sin-offering. " Then shall ye sacrifice one kid of the 
goats for a sin-offering." 

Then there was the sacrifice of commemoration, 
with which sin and its forgiveness had nothing to 
do. Such was the sacrifice of the Passover. It was 
simply a domestic supper with religious rites, to 
remind the Israelites of their deliverance from Egypt. 
In its institution, there is nothing said of sin or its 
forgiveness, nor that the lamb, which was killed on 
this occasion, had anything to do with human guilt. 



384 



PHRASEOLOGY. 



It was killed for no purpose of expiation, but to fur- 
nish the supper, which commemorated the last meal 
which the Israelites took in haste at their departure 
from the house of bondage. It commemorated no 
man's deliverance from sin, but only Israel's deliv- 
erance from Egypt. 

There is another species of sacrifice, which comes 
still nearer our subject, the sacrifice of ratification. 
It was customary among ancient nations, Hebrews 
as well as others, to solemnize the ratification of 
treaties and compacts by the ceremony of sacrifice, 
in which both parties united, and by which they 
recognized that they were bound to the performance 
of their stipulations, not only by an honorable, but 
by a religious obligation. 

In conformity to this custom, God was pleased 
to confirm to Abraham the promise of giving to his 
posterity the land of Canaan, by a sacrifice of ratifi- 
cation. The ceremony is detailed in the fifteenth 
chapter of Genesis. " And he said unto him, I am 
the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chal- 
dees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he 
said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall in- 
herit it ? And he said unto him, Take me an heifer 
of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, 
and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and 
a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and 
divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one 
against another ; but the birds divided he not. And 
when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell 
upon Abram ; and, lo, an horror of great darkness 
fell upon him." The promise is then repeated, with 
minuter circumstances. " And it came to pass, that, 






SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 385 

when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, 
a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed 
between those pieces. In that same day the Lord 
made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed 
have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto 
the great river, the river Euphrates." 

A sacrifice of ratification is described by Homer 
to have been celebrated by Priam and his sons on 
the one part, and the Greek generals on the other, 
at the siege of Troy, which is among the most an- 
cient events related in Grecian history. The sub- 
ject of covenant was, that the Greeks and Trojans 
agreed to decide their contest by a single combat 
between Paris and Menelaus. Three lambs are 
brought before the assembled hosts. 

" Two lambs devoted by your country's rite, 
To earth a sable, to the. sun a white, 
Prepare, ye Trojans. Then a third we bring, 
Select to Jove the inviolable king. 
On either side, a sacred herald stands : 
The wine they mix, and on each monarch's hands 
Pour the full urn, then draws the Grecian lord, 
His cutlass sheathed beneath, his ponderous sword, 
From the signed victims crops the curling hair, 
The heralds part it, and the princes share." 

One of the heralds then utters a solemn prayer, 
and administers the oath of fidelity to the covenant. 
The victims are then slain. 

11 With that the chief the tender victims slew, 
And in the dust their bleeding bodies threw. 
The vital spirit issued at the wound, 
And left the members quivering on the ground. 
From the same urn they drink the mingled wine, 
And add libations to the powers divine, 
33 



386 PHRASEOLOGY. 

While thus their prayers united mount the sky : 
Hear, mighty Jove, and hear, ye gods, on high ! 
And may their blood who first the league confound, 
Shed like this wine, distain the thirsty ground." 

Such, then, was the sacrifice of ratification among 
the heathen, contemporary with the existence of the 
Hebrew commonwealth. 

Another instance, still nearer to our purpose, is 
the ceremony by which the Mosaic institute was 
recognized and established between God and the 
nation of Israel. " Arid Moses wrote all the words 
of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and 
builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, 
according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he 
sent young men of the children of Israel, which 
offered burnt- offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings 
of oxen unto the Lord. Arid Moses took half of the 
blood, and put it in basins ; and half of the blood he 
sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of 
the covenant, and read in the audience of the peo- 
ple ; and they said, All that the Lord hath said will 
we do, and be obedient. Now Moses took the 
blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, 
Behold the blood of the covenant, lohich the Lord 
hath made with you concerning 1 all these wordsP 

The sacrifice of these oxen had nothing to do 
with the pardon of sin, or with sin at all. It was 
simply a sacrifice of ratification. The blood sprin- 
kled on the people had no reference to the forgive- 
ness of transgression, but only signified that the 
people on whom it was sprinkled were parties to 
the covenant. 

There was another species of sacrifice, — the sin- 



SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 387 

r 

offering. Every religion, in order to meet all the 
religious wants of mankind, must make provision 
for the pardon of sin ; for every man feels him- 
self a sinner, and that he needs forgiveness. I do 
not mean that every religion must provide the 
means of appeasing God or making him merciful, 
but of symbolizing God's clemency and assuring 
it to man, and of expressing man's penitence and 
contrition, without which no sin can be forgiven. 

There was such a provision in the law of Moses. 
A man on becoming sensible of some offence which 
he had committed, in token of his penitence, was 
directed to bring a sacrifice to the priest. The use- 
less parts of it were burnt, and the remainder went 
to the support of the priesthood. 

There was, moreover, one day of the year ap- 
pointed to commemorate the sinfulness and express 
the penitence, of the whole nation. The priest 
made a sacrifice, and carried some of the blood 
of the sacrifice into the holy of holies, and sprin- 
kled some of it upon the lid of the ark, which was 
the nearest representative of God in the transaction, 
in which God, the Lawgiver, was to forgive man, 
the transgressor. But then we have every reason 
to believe that there was no efficacy in the sacrifice 
itself. It was only symbolic, and the thing signified 
by the symbol was the penitence of the people. For, 
says Moses, " This shall be a statute for ever unto 
you, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of 
the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work 
at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a 
stranger that sojourneth among you. For on that 
day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to 



388 



PHRASEOLOGY. 



cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins 
before the Lord. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto 
you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for 
ever." 

That is to say, " One day of the year shall be given 
wholly to the duty of meditating on your sins, and 
humbling yourselves in deep contrition before God." 
And simultaneously with this universal penitence, 
humiliation, and contrition, an appropriate sacrifice 
shall be offered by the high-priest at Jerusalem, to 
aid and symbolize this national and universal peni- 
tence. But no man in his senses can suppose that 
there was any efficacy in that sacrifice to take away 
sin, apart from the repentance which it symbolized 
and commemorated. If no heart had been penitent, 
no sin could have been forgiven. And it is equally 
absurd to suppose that, if all hearts had been peni- 
tent, all sins would not have been forgiven, whether 
any sacrifice had been offered or not. 

There was another species of sacrifice still, the 
sacrifice of simple worship, a simple offering to God 
as an act of homage and worship. This had no 
respect to sin or offence of any kind. It might be 
offered even by a stranger, and was merely an 
acknowledgment of Jehovah as the true God. It 
was intended to propitiate God's favor, instead of 
obtaining the forgiveness of sins. Such was the 
morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb, made 
daily at the temple at Jerusalem. That hour was 
selected by the Jews, not only at Jerusalem and in 
Judaea, but throughout the world, as the hour of 
prayer. And doubtless their devotions were aided 
and kindled by the consciousness that, while they 



SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 389 

were praying, the smoke of the morning and even- 
ing sacrifice at Jerusalem was ascending towards 
heaven. 

Such were the various kinds of sacrifice which 
existed among the Jews, and so totally different 
were they from each other in their nature and pur- 
pose. Now if the death of Christ had been a real 
and literal sacrifice, it must have been some one of 
these, and but one; it could not have been all at 
once. We have already enumerated five distinct 
species; the eucharistic or thank-offering, the sacrifice 
of commemoration, the sacrifice of ratification, the sin- 
offering, and the sacrifice of worship. 

Had the death of Christ been literally any one of 
these, the language of that sacrifice would have been 
used concerning it exclusively. But the language 
of all is applied to it alternately, which shows that it 
was literally neither, and that in all cases it is figura- 
tive and analogical, and not literal and primary. His 
death was not a literal sacrifice in any sense, but 
bore some resemblance or analogy to them all, and 
therefore the relations of his death are illustrated by 
them all. 

He is spoken of as a common sacrifice of worship. 
Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, says : "Walk 
in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given 
himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for 
a sweet-smelling savor." No rational being supposes 
that the death of Christ, an atrocious and cruel mur- 
der as it was, was in itself pleasing to God. What 
then does he mean to say ? He means to compare 
the advantages we receive through Christ with the 
advantages which the Jew derived from his sacrifices, 
33* 



390 PHRASEOLOGY. 

when sincerely offered. They brought him near to 
God, by spiritual renovation and reconciliation. And 
that is precisely the benefit we derive from the whole 
mission of Christ, his life and teaching, as well as 
his sufferings and death. 

In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the same 
Apostle says : " Even Christ, our Passover, is sacri- 
ficed for us." The Passover ivas not a sin-offering 
in any sense. It had no reference to sin. It was 
merely a sacrifice of commemoration. It was insti- 
tuted to commemorate the deliverance of the Israel- 
ites from Egypt. So the death of Christ is our de- 
liverance, just so far as it delivers us from sin. And 
it delivers us from sin only so far as it is instrumen- 
tal in bringing us to repentance and reformation. It 
is efficacious, not in making God merciful, but us 
penitent. 

The death of Christ is called a sin-offering, but 
the careful reader of the New Testament will be 
astonished to find in how few instances. He is 
often spoken of as dying for our benefit, but very sel- 
dom as dying for our sins. He says of himself: " I 
lay down my life for the sheepP He dies for their 
benefit and defence. And the figure is taken, not 
from sacrifice, but from the office of a shepherd, who 
sometimes sacrifices his life in defence of his flock 
from the incursions of wild beasts. 

In a very few passages, Christ's death is called a 
sacrifice for sin. John says of him : " "Who is a 
propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but 
for the sins of the whole world." Paul says; " How 
that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scrip- 
tures." In another place : " Who gave himself for 



SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 



391 



Peter thus speaks of his death : " Who, 
his own self, bare our sins in his own body on the 
'tree." 

Here is evidently a reference to a symbolical 
transaction under the Law. One of the victims on 
the day of atonement was not slain at all, but by a 
symbolical ceremony was made to bear away, or take 
upon itself, the sins of the people. " But the goat 
upon which the lot fell to be the scape-goat shall be 
presented alive before the Lord, to make an atone- 
ment with him, and to let him, go for a scape-goat 

into the wilderness And Aaron shall' lay both 

his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess 
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, 
and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting 
them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him 
away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. 
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities 
unto a land not inhabited ; and he shall let go the 
goat in the wilderness." 

Now no man with common understanding can 
imagine that this was any other than a ritual, figu- 
rative, and symbolic transaction. No man believes 
that a goat actually bore the sins of a man, was con- 
scious of their guilt, or suffered their punishment. 
And yet the record says, that the priest actually put 
the iniquities of the people on the head of the goat, 
and that he bore them away into the wilderness. 

So where Peter speaks of Christ's bearing our sins 
in his own body on the tree, we are no more com- 
pelled to take the language literally than in the 
other case; for the language is equally strong and 
positive in both. It is only necessary for us to rec- 



392 PHRASEOLOGY. 

ognize in it the assertion, that the death of Christ 
is made instrumental in bringing about our penitence 
and forgiveness. 

When, in the institution of the Supper, our Sav- 
iour spoke of his death as a sacrifice, the predomi- 
nant idea is that of a sacrifice of ratification. Tak- 
ing the cup he said, " Drink ye all of it, for this is 
my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for 
many for the remission of sins." As if he had said : 
" As when Moses proposed the Law to the people, 
and they promised to obey it, he sprinkled the blood 
of the victim upon them in token of ratification, so is 
the new covenant about to be ratified by my blood, 
of which the wine is the symbol." 

In that covenant there is a stipulation for the for- 
giveness of the sins of the penitent. " Behold, the 
days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new 
covenant with the house of Israel, and with the 
house of Judah ; not according to the covenant that 
I made with their fathers, in the day that I took 
them by the hand to lead them out of the land of 

Egypt; but this shall be the covenant that I 

will make with the house of Israel ; after those days, 
saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward 
parts, and write it in their hearts ; and will be their 
God, and they shall be my people. And they shall 
teach no more every man his neighbor, and every 
man his brother, saying, Know the Lord ; for they 
shall all know me, from the least of them unto the 
greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive 
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." 

He assumed authority on earth to forgive sins. 
The proof of that authority was his resurrection, to 



SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 393 

which his crucifixion led the way. And says Paul: 
" If Christ be not risen, ye are yet in your sins" So 
that the death of Christ did not procure nor assure 
the forgiveness of sins. It was his resurrection 
which demonstrated his mission, and guaranteed his 
promise of forgiveness to the penitent. Had the in- 
strumentality of his death in procuring the forgive- 
ness of sin been simply expiation, then it would 
have been equally efficacious whether he had risen 
from the dead or not. 

The fact, then, that the death of Christ is com- 
pared to all the different kinds of sacrifice, is evi- 
dence, is a proof, that it was literally none of them, 
and not a literal sacrifice at all, but is compared 
to them all from some point of resemblance to 
each. 

Nothing then could be more contrary to fact, than 
to say that the death of Christ was the real sacrifice, 
and all the sacrifices of the Old Testament merely 
types and shadows, prefiguring it and looking for- 
ward to it. On the contrary, the only reason why 
the death of Christ was called a sacrifice at all, was 
the fact that the Christian religion was first promul- 
gated among the Jews, who were a sacrificial people, 
and full of the ideas and the language of sacrifice. 
It was perfectly natural that Christ and his Apostles, 
in establishing a purely spiritual religion, in which 
there were no sacrifices, and by which sacrifices 
were done away, should use language in illustration 
borrowed from the old ritual and its sacred associ- 
ations. 

But to represent the sacrifices as the figures, and 
the death of Christ as the reality, is a complete in- 



394 PHRASEOLOGY. 

version of facts ; as much as to dig up a tree by the 
roots, and plant the branches in the earth, and rear 
the roots in the air, would be an inversion of the 
order of nature. 

Christ's great work was to establish his truth in 
the earth, not to expiate men's sins. " The flesh," 
says he, " profiteth nothing. The vjords that I speak 
unto you, they are spirit and they are life." This is 
made most evident when we come to his last prayer 
with his disciples. When he was about to leave the 
earth, he lifted up his- soul in prayer for the success 
of his mission. On that solemn occasion, he would 
naturally lay stress upon that part of it which was 
really most important. If his expiatory death had 
been the main purpose of his mission, he would 
have addressed God in such language as this : " I 
am now approaching the most important part of 
my office. I am about to offer myself in sacrifice. 
Receive, O Father, this propitiation for the sins of 
mankind. Let it appease thy displeasure, and sat- 
isfy thy justice." 

But he says nothing of this. He makes the great 
purpose of his mission to be something of a very dif- 
erent nature. " I have finished the work" says he, 
" which thou gavest me to do. I have given them 
the words which thou gavest me." This was his 
great work, and it was finished ; and his death was 
merely incidental, his testimony to the truth of what 
he had taught. " And now come I to thee." 

He prayed for their sanctification. But by what 
means ? That their sins might be expiated by his 
death, that their transgressions might be imputed to 
him, and his righteousness imputed to them ? No. 



SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 395 

But by means most natural and rational. " Sanc- 
tify them through thy truth : thy word is truth." 

Here, then, according to Christ's last solemn pray- 
er, are the whole force and power and moral efficacy 
of the Gospel, centred in its truth, what it teaches 
mankind, what it makes men receive as truth and act 
upon as such. This is the only salvation for man. 
And the death of Christ has the most immediate 
bearing upon it. He declared that the truths he 
taught came immediately from God, and were deci- 
sive of men's future destiny. He was accused as an 
impostor, pretending to a revelation Avhich he had 
never received. Had he refused to die a martyr to 
the truth, there would have been an end to his relig- 
ion ; it would have had no power, and the millions 
who have been redeemed by it from sin and moral 
death would have been left to perish. 

His crucifixion, instead of crushing his cause, 
was indirectly the means of arming his Apostles 
with new power. It made his death a tragedy, the 
deepest, most solemn, and most moving, that was 
ever enacted upon earth. Kings, governors, and 
senates were the actors in it, — a whole city was its 
theatre, and a whole nation its spectators. The 
most careless eye has seen in it the triumph of 
malice and falsehood over truth and innocence, 
and the injustice of that trial, the indignity of those 
stripes, and the agonies of that unmerited death 
upon the cross, have fulfilled his own prophecy: 
"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
all men unto me." They have fixed upon him the 
spmpathies of all mankind to the end of time. Men 
have hearts as well as understandings, sensibility as 






396 PHRASEOLOGY. 

well as intellect, and thus Christ addressed all the 
principles of human nature at once, and made con- 
quest of them all. The inauguration of Christianity 
as the religion of the world was taken out of the 
obscure localities of Nazareth, Capernaum, and the 
shores of the Galilean lake, and transferred to the 
capital of Judaea, there to be publicly performed by 
unwitting actors, and witnessed by multitudes who 
knew not the use which God was making of their 
obstinacy, prejudices, and blindness. That death in 
the sight of thousands, officially procured and offi- 
cially ascertained, that rocky sepulchre, watched 
over by a guard of armed soldiers, only increased 
the wonder of the awe-struck world, when the sep- 
ulchre was opened and the Crucified re-appeared. 
That* event clothed its witnesses with new power, 
and conferred upon them an authority which men 
had never possessed before. To the treasures of 
spiritual truth which they had derived from the 
teaching of Christ, they now added a message from 
the spiritual world ; they became the ambassadors of 
a risen Saviour. The power of moral conviction, 
which their discourses ever carried with them, was 
henceforth deepened and confirmed by the powers 
of the world to come. 

The Gospel, thus corroborated from earth beneath 
and from heaven above, went on conquering and to 
conquer. It took a deeper hold on humanity than 
anything had ever done before ; it was found to pos- 
sess the power of spiritual renovation ; it created men 
anew in the moral image of Christ; the evil passions 
of men were curbed and subdued, and reason and 
conscience were enthroned in their stead. A com- 



SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 397 

munity rose up, such as the world had never seen, 
such as no laws, no philosophy, no education could 
ever produce, and Paul the Apostle, the despised 
son of a persecuted race, by a few months' labor in 
the various cities of the Roman empire, through the 
spiritual power of the Gospel, accomplished a reno- 
vation of society which sages and lawgivers had for 
ages attempted in vain. 

The blood of Christ, then, is the seal of the truth 
of his religion. By that religion, its teachings and 
moral influences, mankind are saved. And it is a 
true representation, though not in the common, 
material sense, where the Apocalyptist makes the 
multitude of the saints in light to celebrate his 
praise. " Unto him that loved us, and washed us 
from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
kings and priests unto his God and Father, to him 
be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 



34 



/ 



DISCOURSE XXV. 



REGENERATION. 

MARVEL NOT THAT I SAID UNTO THEE, YE MUST BE BORN 
AGAIN. THE WLND BLOWETH WHERE IT LISTETH, AND 
THOU HEAREST THE SOUND THEREOF, BUT CANST NOT 
TELL WHENCE IT COMETH, AND WHITHER IT GOETH : SO 
IS EVERY ONE THAT IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT. — John 

iii. 7, 8. 

The importance of making a distinction be- 
tween Doctrine and Phraseology is nowhere, per- 
haps, more conspicuous than in the language which 
is used in the New Testament concerning spiritual 
renovation, that change which Christianity is de- 
signed to bring about in the soul of man. Make it 
a figure of speech, as it was in the mouth of Christ, 
a phraseology in common use among the Jews 
and well understood by them, and it is reasonable 
and consistent ; and it harmonizes with experience, 
justice, the nature of man, and the Divine character. 
But make it a doctrine, the very sum and essence 
of Christianity, and it arrays itself against reason, 
justice, and morality, and makes Christianity itself 
the revelation of unspeakable wrong. 

Its original meaning is sufficiently explained 



REGENERATION. 399 

when we consider the manner in which it was 
introduced by Jesus in his conversation with Nico- 
demus. It is not brought forward as anything new, 
but as a thing with which Nicodemus, as a Rabbi, 
ought to be well acquainted. " Art thou a master 
of Israel, and knowest not these things ? " Nicode- 
mus, as a Jewish Rabbi, well knew that the incor- 
poration of a convert from Paganism into the Jewish 
nation was called a new birth, not because there was 
any change of personal identity, not because there 
was any change of nature or constitution, but because 
there was a change of religion, a change of faith, of 
habits, of association, — there was, in fact, the com- 
mencement of a new life. If the conversion were 
sincere, there was a change of character. Out- 
wardly, the convert became by adoption a child of 
Abraham, and an heir of the promises made to him. 
Inwardly he became the spiritual child of Abraham, 
by faith in God and obedience to his laws. It was 
a saying among the Jews, " If any one become a 
proselyte, he is like a child new born." And again, 
" The Gentile that is made a proselyte, and the ser- 
vant that is made free, behold, he is like a child new 
born." 

Christ asserts, greatly to the surprise of Nicode- 
mus, that just such a change is necessary in order 
that a Jew may become a Christian. The heathen 
proselyte became a Jew by circumcision. The Jew 
must become a Christian by baptism, and thus 
incorporate himself with the new Church which is 
now being established under the Messiah. 

But this was not all. All Jews were not the spir- 
itual children of Abraham. Those only were such 
who resembled him in character. As Paul after- 



400 PHRASEOLOGY. 

wards beautifully expressed the same truth, " For 
he is not a Jew which is one outwardly ; neither is 
that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. 
But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circum- 
cision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in 
the letter ; whose praise is not of men, but of God." 
Christianity has to do with the soul, with the spirit- 
ual part of man. It has to do with character as 
well as profession. The soul of man is free, and is 
not controlled by the outward lineage of the body, 
nor yet by forms and ceremonies. Baptism itself is 
no certain guaranty of the Christian character. It 
still leaves the soul free to choose its own actions 
and form its own character. The soul is free as the 
wind that blows. Allegiance to the Gospel must 
be spontaneous, and the process of spiritual renova- 
tion must be wrought out in the secret recesses of 
the mind. Can any thing be more true, rational, 
and practical than this ? 

Interpreted as phraseology, it stands on the same . 
ground with other figures of speech used in the 
New Testament. A state of sin is called death, 
and a recovery to virtue a resurrection, or a passing 
from death unto life. A state of moral degrada- 
tion is called blindness, and redemption from it is 
called restoration to sight. Jesus carried the figure 
of spiritual death so far, as to call his Gospel his 
voice, by which he summons those who lie in the 
graves of moral debasement to spiritual life. Such 
figures mislead no one, while they are interpreted as 
figures. They add vivacity and force to the teach- 
ings of the Saviour, and generally to the language 
of the New Testament. 

So long as the principle is kept in view, that 



REGENERATION. 401 

comparisons and similitudes are to be expected to 
hold in a few particulars only, and that the thing 
illustrated remains unchanged, and retains its own 
nature and laws, and is to be judged of by that 
nature and those laws, and not by the qualities or 
circumstances of the thing to which it is compared, 
there is no serious misapprehension. 

But all minds are not satisfied with this. Prompted 
by various motives, they proceed to transform phrase- 
ology into doctrine, to petrify a figure into a dogma, 
and Regeneration becomes the very sum and essence 
of Christianity. Instead of considering spiritual 
renovation as illustrated by natural truth, the laws 
and conditions of natural birth are transferred to 
spiritual renovation. Whole treatises are written to 
carry out this idea, not to make Christianity reason- 
able, plain, and practical, but to involve it in a cloud 
of mysticism. 

The fruit of this transformation of phraseology 
into doctrine is first the implication, and then the 
outright assertion, that regeneration is a change of 
nature instead of a change of character. What fol- 
lows from this ? Inferences most dishonorable to 
God, and most discouraging and disheartening to 
men, — doctrines which seriously derange and em- 
barrass the whole administration of Christianity. 

The clearest and most indisputable dictate of 
natural justice is, that law should be adapted to the 
subject, that requirements should be commensurate 
with endowments and capacities. To require im- 
possibilities is the very essence of a tyranny. If 
God makes man, I mean each man, now and here, 
with a nature incapable of complying with his 
34* 



402 PHRASEOLOGY. 

requirements, incapable of religion, and it is neces- 
sary that his nature should be changed by the same 
power that created it before he can do anything ac- 
ceptable to God, then is the government of God 
wholly indefensible, and it is impossible to regard 
his character as worthy of our homage and affec- 
tion, and there is at once an end of religion. 

Burdened with regeneration as a doctrine con- 
cerning the nature of man, the preaching of the 
Gospel becomes anything rather than the annun- 
ciation of glad tidings to mankind. The teacher of 
Christianity, when he delivers his message, is com- 
pelled to say to men that their sinfulness is owing 
to defect of nature, and not to perversity of will ; 
that they are created without the capacity of religion, 
and that capacity they cannot acquire, and yet are 
they subject to the direst penalties for the want of 
its possession. 

But such is the direct contradiction between these 
two statements, that it is impossible for mankind to 
believe but one. And they will probably accept 
that which will involve the least responsibility and 
require the least exertion ; and that will be to take 
the preacher at his word, when he tells them of 
their inability to do anything for themselves. 

But what words can express the moral desolation 
which must be produced by that doctrine which 
takes from the great mass of mankind the sense of 
spiritual capacity and responsibility ; which teaches 
that by nature they are not within the conditions of 
probation, and that they cannot be placed within 
those conditions except by an act of almighty 
power ? 



REGENERATION. 403 

Sometimes this doctrine is carried so far that the 
unregenerate, as they are called, are treated as if 
they were incapable of any religious act or exercise. 
In the house of God they are spoken of as mere spec- 
tators, as incapable of taking a part in the devo- 
tions, and as being there not to pray, but that the 
regenerate may pray for them. It is even main- 
tained that the prayers of the unregenerate are sin. 

What position could possibly be taken more inju- 
rious to the religious welfare of much the larger 
majority of mankind, than to teach them that they 
are not religious beings, and, until their natures are 
changed, can have no part nor lot in religion ? 
What presumption, even were this distinction found- 
ed in fact, for a part of mankind to assume that they 
are regenerated, and the rest are not! The good 
deeds of all on one side of a certain line are to 
be denied as worthless, and of no account in the 
sight of God ; and the evil deeds of all those on the 
other side, to be regarded as venial, and not endan- 
gering their salvation. 

This representation of mankind as separated into 
two grand divisions by the line of regeneration is 
essentially false. It does not correspond to facts, 
either historically or theoretically. The religious life 
is historically progressive. " The path of the just is 
as the shining light, which shineth more and more 
unto the perfect day." Those instances are excep- 
tions in which a sudden and great change takes 
place in the character. Christ has well compared 
the progress of the religious life to the growth of 
grain out of the earth. " So is the kingdom of God, 
as if a man should cast seed into the ground ; and 



404 PHRASEOLOGY. 

should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed 
should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. 
For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself ; first the 
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 

The history of every human life is made up of lit- 
tle things, none of which exerts a very powerful influ- 
ence on the character, but all together, and in the 
aggregate, they make us what we are when we leave 
this world. Great events do not often happen, and 
it would be unsafe in spiritual matters to wait for 
their occurrence. 

The spiritual renovation which is figuratively called 
Regeneration in the New Testament, is a voluntary 
change of character. "When preached as a dogma, 
it becomes a passive change of constitution, and thus 
virtually takes the spiritual destiny of man out of 
his hands. In this shape it usually connects itself 
with the doctrine of Original Sin, which is in itself 
the most atrocious imputation on God and man. 
It supposes that God suffered the first parents of our 
race to decide by their own act the eternal destiny 
of all their posterity, and incapacitate them for vir- 
tue and holiness. In this condition of things, their 
posterity have no probation. They are lost before 
they have done a single act of their own. They 
have no moral freedom, and yet are made liable to 
all the penalties of transgression just as much as if 
they were. 

The selection of any part of them becomes a mat- 
ter of mere arbitrary will. An act of almighty 
power is necessary to make them free moral agents. 
Hence then follows the doctrine of Election, a doc- 
trine as abhorrent to every sentiment of justice in the 
human bosom as the doctrine of Original Sin. 



REGENERATION. 405 

Another doctrine has sprung out of it quite as in- 
consistent with reason and justice, — the doctrine 
of Baptismal Regeneration. This doctrine teaches 
that baptism, administered by consecrated hands, 
is accompanied by an act of God's power, supernat- 
urally exerted, to change the nature of the child to 
which it is administered, to restore the ruin of the 
Fall, and place the child in the condition in which 
Adam was before he sinned. 

What valid objection can be made to this doc- 
trine, if the principle involved in the doctrine of 
Original Sin be admitted ? Is it said, that it is 
partial and unjust, on the part of God, to bestow 
this favor on one human being before he has ar- 
rived at an age of moral and responsible action, and 
withhold it from another no better and no worse ? 
It may be answered, that it is quite as just as to 
suffer one being to ruin the nature and blast the 
prospects of another, without any community of ac- 
tion between the two. And if there be no moral 
or metaphysical objection to this use of almighty 
power in the case of a few, why, we solemnly ask? 
is it not extended to all ? Do not the plainest dic- 
tates of justice demand that it should be extended 
to all ? They were ruined by an agency over which 
they had no control ; why should they not be re- 
stored by an agency equally foreign and indepen- 
dent of themselves ? 

The figure of regeneration, petrified into a dogma, 
reverses the order of spiritual renovation as laid down 
in the Scriptures. It is the uniform representation 
of the sacred writers, that the first step towards sal- 
vation is taken by man in the exercise of his free and 



406 



PHRASEOLOGY. 



unbiased will ; and so salvation is sincerely offered 
to all to whom the Gospel is preached. " Whoso- 
ever will, let him come and take the waters of 
life freely." But if the doctrine of Regeneration in 
the sense of a passive change of constitution be true, 
there is no sincerity in this invitation, or any other 
invitation recorded in the Bible. The will is not free 
in the direction indicated. It has no power in that 
direction, until subjected to an act of almighty trans- 
formation. 

Those passages which seem to favor this system, 
when closely examined, are found to teach the very 
opposite ; as, for instance, that remarkable one in the 
first chapter of the Gospel of John : " Which were 
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of 
the will of man, but of God." Here it would seem, 
at first sight, that the spiritual birth took place by 
the immediate agency of God, without the co-oper- 
ation of the human will, and almost in opposition 
to it. But if we go back to the preceding verse, we 
find that it is all explained. There we find that there 
is a free act of the human will, which precedes the 
adoption of the sons of God. " But as many as 
received him, to them gave he power to become the 
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." 
The act of receiving Christ was man's act, done in 
the exercise of his free, unbiased will, and what God 
does is consequent upon it. And we learn to inter- 
pret the act of God's will by which Christians be- 
come the sons of God, not of his influencing the 
human will, but of his providing through faith in 
Christ another way for men to become his spiritual 
children, besides being descended by birth from the 



REGENERATION. 



407 



stock of Abraham, or being adopted into the Israel- 
itish nation by proselytism. 

Regeneration preached as a doctrine generally 
misrepresents the nature of spiritual influences, that 
action of God upon the soul of man which is repre- 
sented in the New Testament as accompanying the 
administration of Christianity. It is nowhere repre- 
sented as changing the essential elements of human 
nature, as making men incapable of sin, or securing 
them against it, except by a continuance of their 
own exertions. Such a change would be inconsist- 
ent with the continuance of a state of probation. 
The Spirit is represented as aiding men, not as doing 
their work for them and superseding their own 
agency. " The Spirit helpeth our infirmities." 

It is given, according to the representations of the 
word of God, in answer to prayer. " If ye, then, be- 
ing evil, know how to give good gifts unto your chil- 
dren, how much more shall your Heavenly Father 
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ? " If so 
indefinite and mysterious a subject is capable of defi- 
nition, perhaps the nearest approach we can make 
to a logical definition of spiritual influences as ap- 
plicable to Christian experience, is this. It is the 
natural influence upon the soul of man which is ex- 
erted by true prayer to the true God. It is the pow- 
erful and transforming force that is thus brought to 
operate upon the human soul. It is felt by every hu- 
man being who intelligently and fervently prays to 
the Father of spirits. It is the grand instrument of 
the sanctification of the soul. But it produces no 
change in the essential nature of man. It does not 
make salvation sure, nor secure to any an immunity 



408 



PHRASEOLOGY. 



from subsequent temptation, declension, and fall. 
Paul himself, with all the aid he received from the 
ordinary and supernatural influence of the Spirit of 
God, was conscious that he still was in danger of 
spiritual disaster, and, after having preached to oth- 
ers, himself might become a castaway. 

It has been the pressing of the figure of regenera- 
tion to a positive doctrine, affecting the essential na- 
ture of man, which in different ages has produced the 
fatal Antinomian error of the Saint's Perseverance, a 
doctrine which has disturbed the peace of so many 
churches, and put a period to the growth of so many 
Christians. It is impossible to prevent the belief 
which a man cherishes in a supernatural change in 
his nature, wrought by God's immediate interposi- 
tion, from begetting a false confidence in himself, and 
a spiritual arrogance towards others. There are no 
distinctions so sure to be the foundation of pride and 
assumption, as those which are attainable by no hu- 
man effort. They are secured by a monopoly with 
which nothing can interfere. 

And so we see, in Protestant churches, the same 
use made of the dogma of Regeneration, that is 
made of the doctrine of Infallibility by the Church of 
Rome. It is made the instrument of ecclesiastical 
domination. Those who profess to have been regen- 
erated assume to themselves the whole management 
of ecclesiastical affairs by divine right. They make 
it the ground of disfranchising all who do not make 
the same pretension. Their religious experience they 
consider to amount to a divine sanction of their re- 
ligious opinions, and upon the strength of this supe- 
rior illumination they claim the power, not only to 



REGENERATION. 409 

judge of their own state, but of the religious condi- 
tion and opinions of others. They undertake to 
decide who are and who are not prepared to ap- 
proach the table of communion, and to shut out, on 
grounds of mere opinion, those who exhibit in their 
daily life quite as strong evidence of sincere alle- 
giance to the Saviour as themselves. 

Thus Protestant churches attempt to govern the 
world by ideas, precisely as the Catholic Church gov- 
erned it by institutions ; and the infallibility of hav- 
ing been born again is found quite as useful an in- 
strument of spiritual domination, as the infallibility 
of belonging to the Holy Catholic Church, derived 
by unbroken succession from the Apostles. 

But the most pernicious consequence of preaching 
Regeneration as a doctrine is, that it underrates the 
power of the human will as an instrument of spiritual 
renovation. Our characters are formed by what 
we do. The best and most efficient means of relig- 
ious improvement is action. Form a good purpose 
and execute it immediately, and it is a giant stride 
towards the excellence we seek. It is a good thing 
to pray, and systematically to use the means of 
grace, as they are called. But there is something 
better still. Do with zeal and energy the first duty 
which presents itself, overcome the first temptation 
which besets you, and the soul shall wax strong in 
virtue by the simple exercise of its own powers. 

Hence the barrenness of worship, and the use of 
the instrumental duties of religion in Christian 
lands. The divine order of spiritual renovation is 
overlooked. It begins with an act of the will, and 
Christ's first message to the world was, " Repent, 
25 



410 PHRASEOLOGY. 

for the kingdom of God is at hand." Men worship 
in vain, because they neglect the conditions of ac- 
ceptable worship, which are to do your duty as far 
as you know it before you attempt to worship. " If 
thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember- 
est that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave 
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first 
be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer 
thy gift." That act shall profit thee more than to 
listen for months to solemn liturgies and eloquent 
discourses, without the serious purpose or the earnest 
effort to do thy daily duty. Man's order is, Worship 
that you may be clean. The Divine order is, Be clean 
that you may worship. " Who shall ascend the hill 
of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place ? 
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart ! " 

This is a representation of things totally different 
from passive, constitutional regeneration, in which 
God must take the initiative step, and man must 
wait for a divine impulse. Every suggestion of 
duty, every admonition of conscience, is a divine 
impulse, not withheld from any individual of the 
human race. There is no such sharp dividing-line 
between the natural and the supernatural as narrow 
theologians represent. It is the same God who acts 
through both for the accomplishment of the same 
purpose. The highest species of self-culture is not 
spiritual exercises, but action, prompt, resolute, per- 
severing action. It is not to go into God's temples 
and cry, Lord, Lord ! but to do the things which he 
hath commanded. 

THE END. 



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